Motto: "Nisi Dominus Frustra" "Except the Lord in vain" associated with Edinburgh since 1647, it is a normal heraldic contraction of a verse from the 127th Psalm, "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain"

The city attracts 1 million overseas visitors a year, making it the second most visited tourist destination in the United Kingdom, after London.[3] In a 2009 YouGov poll, Edinburgh was voted the "most desirable city in which to live in the UK".[4] Edinburgh was also rated The Best Place to Live in Channel 4's 2007 4Homes survey, .[5]

History

Humans have settled the Edinburgh area from at least the Bronze Age, leaving traces of primitive stone settlements at Holyrood, Craiglockhart Hill and the Pentland Hills for example.[6] Influenced through the Iron Age by Hallstatt and La TeneCeltic cultures from central Europe, by the time the Romans arrived in Lothian at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD, they discovered a Celtic, Brythonic tribe whose name they recorded as Votadini, likely to be a Latin version of the name they called themselves.

The city's name is most likely Celtic (P-Celtic, Brythonic) in origin, possibly Cumbric or a variation of it. It is first mentioned in the late 6th century in the heroic poems of the Gododdin (a later Brythonic form of 'Votadini'), named as both Eidyn and Din Eidyn and also described as Eidyn ysgor or Eidyn gaer, i.e. the stronghold or fort of Eidyn. All these forms use 'Eidyn' as a proper name, and the same is true for later translations made by invading Bernicians and Scots, typified in a note from the 9th century's Life of St Monenna, 'Dunedene, which is in English, Edineburg'.[7][8]

This Celtic root is contrary to the often-cited theory that the city was named after the Bernician King of Northumbria, Edwin, who was killed in AD 633. However it is extremely unlikely that Edwin had any connection with Edinburgh, despite the expansion of his kingdom during his reign. Although centuries later some, such as Symeon of Durham in the 12th century, referred to the city in terms such as Edwinesburch, this hypothesis has been largely discredited as 'folk-etymology', the invention of a connection where there is none, most likely for political reasons. Indeed rigorous etymological research supports the Celtic route theory.[9]

Nevertheless there is no doubt that the Angles of Northumbria did have significant influence over south east Scotland, notably from AD 638 when it appears the Gododdin stronghold of Din Eidyn was sieged. Though far from exclusive (cfPicts and Scots), this influence continued over three centuries. It was not until c. AD 950 when, during the reign of Indulf, son of Constantine, the city, referred to at this time in the Pictish Chronicle as 'oppidum Eden',[9] fell to the Scots and finally remained under their jurisdiction.[10]

It is worth noting that during this period of Germanic influence in south east Scotland, when the city's name gained its Germanic suffix, 'burgh', the seeds for the language we know today as Scots were sown.

By the 12th century Edinburgh was well established, founded upon the famous castle rock, the volcanic crag and tail geological feature shaped by 2 million years of glacial activity. Flourishing alongside it to the east, another community developed around the Abbey of Holyrood, known as Canongate. In the 13th century these both became Royal Burghs and through the late medieval period Edinburgh grew quickly.

In 1603 King James VI of Scotland succeeded to the English and Irish thrones, fulfilling his ambition to create a united kingdom under the Stuart Monarchy. Although he retained the Parliament of Scotland in Edinburgh, he marched to London to rule from his throne there. He ordered that every public building in the land should bear his family's emblem, the red lion rampant, and to this day the most common name for a public house in Britain is the Red Lion.

In 17th century Edinburgh, a defensive wall, built in the 16th century, largely as protection against English invasion following James IV's defeat at Flodden (hence its moniker, the Flodden Wall) still defined the boundaries of the city . Due to the restricted land area available for development, the houses increased in height instead. Buildings of 11 stories were common, and there are records of buildings as high as 14 stories,[citation needed] an early version of the modern-day skyscraper. Many of the stone-built structures can still be seen today in the Old Town.

In 1707 the Act of Union was ratified by a narrow margin in the Parliament of Scotland, however many Scots had opposed it and the people of Edinburgh rioted at the news. It would be almost 300 years before the Parliament was reinstated.

From early times, and certainly from the 14th century, Edinburgh (like other royal burghs of Scotland) used armorial devices in many ways, including on seals. However in 1732, the ‘achievement’ or ‘coat of arms’ was formally granted by the Lord Lyon King of Arms. These arms were used by Edinburgh Town Council until the reorganisation of local government in Scotland in May 1975, when it was succeeded by the City of Edinburgh District Council and a new coat of arms, based on the earlier one, was granted. In 1996, further local government reorganisation resulted in the formation of the City of Edinburgh Council, and again the coat of arms was updated.[11]

During the Jacobite rising of 1745, Edinburgh was briefly occupied by Jacobite forces before their march into England.

An 1802 illustration of Edinburgh from the west.

However following their ultimate defeat at Culloden, there was a period of reprisals and pacification, largely directed at the Catholic Highlanders. In Edinburgh the Hanoverian monarch attempted to gain favour by supporting new developments to the north of the castle, naming streets in honour of the King and his family; George Street, Frederick Street, Hanover Street and Princes Street, named in honour of George IV's two sons.

Edinburgh is noted for its fine architecture, and the New Town for its Georgian architecture in particular.[citation needed]

The city was at the heart of the Scottish Enlightenment and renowned throughout Europe at this time, as a hotbed of talent and ideas and a beacon for progress.[citation needed] Celebrities from across the continent would be seen in the city streets, among them famous Scots such as David Hume, Walter Scott, Robert Adam, David Wilkie, Robert Burns, James Hutton and Adam Smith. Edinburgh became a major cultural centre, earning it the nickname Athens of the North because of the Greco-Roman style of the New Town's architecture, as well as the rise of the Scottish intellectual elite who were increasingly leading both Scottish and European intellectual thought.[citation needed]

Edinburgh today

In the 19th century, Edinburgh, like many cities, industrialised, but did not grow as fast as Scotland's second city, Glasgow, which replaced it as the largest city in the country, benefitting greatly at the height of the British Empire.

Nicknames

The city is affectionately nicknamed Auld Reekie[12] (Scots for Old Smoky), because when buildings were heated by coal and wood fires, chimneys would spew thick columns of smoke into the air. The colloquial pronunciation "Embra" or "Embro" has also been used[13] as in Robert Garioch's Embro to the Ploy.[14]

Some have called Edinburgh the Athens of the North. It is also known by several Latin names; Aneda or Edina. The adjectival form of the latter, Edinensis, can be seen inscribed on many educational buildings.[15][16][17][18][19]

Edinburgh has also been known as Dunedin, deriving from the Scottish Gaelic, Dùn Èideann. Dunedin, New Zealand, was originally called "New Edinburgh" and is still nicknamed the "Edinburgh of the South". The Scots poets Robert Burns and Robert Fergusson sometimes used the city's Latin name, Edina. Ben Jonson described it as Britain's other eye,[20] and Sir Walter Scott referred to the city as yon Empress of the North.[21] Robert Louis Stevenson, also a son of the city, wrote, "Edinburgh is what Paris ought to be".

Panorama of the Old Town and Southside of Edinburgh from the Nelson monument. The term panorama was originally coined by the painter Robert Barker to describe his panoramic paintings of Edinburgh.

Geography

Bounded by the Firth of Forth to the north and the Pentland Hills, which skirt the periphery of the city to the south, Edinburgh lies in the eastern portion of the Central Lowlands of Scotland.[22] The city sprawls over a landscape which is the product of early volcanic activity and later periods of intensive glaciation.[23] Igneous activity between 350 and 400 million years ago, coupled with faulting led to the dispersion of tough basaltvolcanic plugs, which predominate over much of the area.[23] One such example is Castle Rock which forced the advancing icepack to divide, sheltering the softer rock and forming a mile-long tail of material to the east, creating a distinctive crag and tail formation.[23] Glacial erosion on the northern side of the crag gouged a large valley resulting in the now drained Nor Loch. This structure, along with a ravine to the south, formed an ideal natural fortress which Edinburgh Castle was built upon.[23] Similarly, Arthur's Seat is the remains of a volcano system dating from the Carboniferous period, which was eroded by a glacier moving from west to east during the ice age.[23] Erosive action such as plucking and abrasion exposed the rocky crags to the west before leaving a tail of deposited glacial material swept to the east.[24] This process formed the distinctive Salisbury Crags, which formed a series of teschenite cliffs located between Arthur's Seat and the city centre.[25] The residential areas of Marchmont and Bruntsfield are built along a series of drumlin ridges located south of the city centre which were deposited as the glacier receded.[23]

Designated in 1957, Edinburgh is ringed by a green belt stretching from Dalmeny in the west to Prestongrange in the east.[28] With an average width of 3.2 km (2 miles) the principal objective of the green belt was to contain the outward expansion of Edinburgh and to prevent the agglomeration of urban areas.[28] Expansion within the green belt is strictly controlled but developments such as Edinburgh Airport and the Royal Highland Showground at Ingliston are located within the zone.[28] Similarly, urban villages such as Juniper Green and Balerno sit on green belt land.[28] One feature of the green belt in Edinburgh is the inclusion of parcels of land within the city which are designated as green belt even though they do not adjoin the main peripheral ring. Examples of these independent wedges of green belt include Holyrood Park and Corstorphine Hill.[28]

Like much of the rest of Scotland, Edinburgh has a temperate, maritime climate which is relatively mild despite its northerly latitude.[29] Winters are especially mild, with daytime temperatures rarely falling below freezing, and compare favourably with places such as Moscow, Labrador and Newfoundland which lie in similar latitudes.[29] Summer temperatures are normally moderate, with daily upper maxima rarely exceeding 22 °C.[29] The highest temperature ever recorded in the city was 31.4 °C on 4 August 1975.[29] The proximity of the city to the sea mitigates any large variations in temperature or extremes of climate. Given Edinburgh's position between the coast and hills, it is renowned as a windy city, with the prevailing wind direction coming from the south-west which is associated with warm, unstable air from the Gulf Stream that can give rise to rainfall - although considerably less than cities to the west, such as Glasgow.[29] Rainfall is distributed fairly evenly throughout the year.[29] Winds from an easterly direction are usually drier but colder. Vigorous Atlantic depressions, known as European windstorms, can affect the city between October and May.[29]

Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is divided into areas that generally encompass a park (sometimes known as "links"), a main local street (i.e. street of local retail shops), a high street (the historic main street, not always the same as the main local street, such as in Corstorphine) and residential buildings. In Edinburgh many residences are tenements, although the more southern and western parts of the city have traditionally been more affluent and have a greater number of detached and semi-detached villas.

To the immediate west of the castle lies the financial district, housing insurance and banking buildings. Probably the most noticeable building here is the circular sandstone building that is the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

Old Town

The Old Town has preserved its medieval plan and many Reformation-era buildings. One end is closed by the castle and the main artery, the Royal Mile, leads away from it; minor streets (called closes or wynds) lead downhill on either side of the main spine in a herringbone pattern. Large squares mark the location of markets or surround public buildings such as St. Giles' Cathedral and the Law Courts. Other notable places nearby include the Royal Museum of Scotland, Surgeons' Hall and McEwan Hall. The street layout is typical of the old quarters of many northern European cities, and where the castle perches on top of a rocky crag (the remnants of an extinct volcano) the Royal Mile runs down the crest of a ridge from it.

Due to space restrictions imposed by the narrowness of the "tail", the Old Town became home to some of the earliest "high rise" residential buildings. Multi-storey dwellings known as lands were the norm from the 1500s onwards with ten and eleven stories being typical and one even reaching fourteen stories. Additionally, numerous vaults below street level were inhabited to accommodate the influx of (mainly Irish) immigrants during the Industrial Revolution. These continue to fuel legends of an underground city to this day. Today there are tours of Edinburgh which take you into the underground city, Edinburgh Vaults.[30]

New Town

The New Town was an 18th century solution to the problem of an increasingly crowded Old Town. The city had remained incredibly compact, confined to the ridge running down from the castle. In 1766 a competition to design the New Town was won by James Craig, a 22-year-old architect. The plan that was built created a rigid, ordered grid, which fitted well with enlightenment ideas of rationality. The principal street was to be George Street, which follows the natural ridge to the north of the Old Town. Either side of it are the other main streets of Princes Street and Queen Street. Princes Street has since become the main shopping street in Edinburgh, and few Georgian buildings survive on it. Linking these streets were a series of perpendicular streets. At the east and west ends are St. Andrew Square and Charlotte Square respectively. The latter was designed by Robert Adam and is often considered one of the finest Georgian squares in the world. Bute House, the official residence of the First Minister of Scotland, is on the north side of Charlotte Square. Sitting in the glen between the Old and New Towns was the Nor' Loch, which had been both the city's water supply and place for dumping sewage. By the 1820s it was drained. Some plans show that a canal was intended[citation needed], but Princes Street Gardens were created instead. Excess soil from the construction of the buildings was dumped into the loch, creating what is now The Mound. In the mid-19th century the National Gallery of Scotland and Royal Scottish Academy Building were built on The Mound, and tunnels to Waverley Station driven through it. The New Town was so successful that it was extended greatly. The grid pattern was not maintained, but rather a more picturesque layout was created. Today the New Town is considered by many to be one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture and planning in the world.

South side

A popular residential part of the city is its south side, comprising a number of areas including St Leonards, Marchmont, Newington, Sciennes, The Grange, Edinburgh "South side" is broadly analogous to the area covered by the Burgh Muir, and grew in popularity as a residential area following the opening of the South Bridge. These areas are particularly popular with families (many well-regarded[citation needed] state and private schools are located here), students (the central University of Edinburgh campus is based around George Square just north of Marchmont and the Meadows, and Napier University has major campuses around Merchiston & Morningside), and with festival-goers. These areas are also the subject of fictional work: Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus lives in Marchmont and worked in St Leonards; and Morningside is the home of Muriel Spark's Miss Jean Brodie. Today, the literary connection continues, with the area being home to the authors J. K. Rowling, Ian Rankin, and Alexander McCall Smith.

Leith

Leith is the port of Edinburgh. It still retains a separate identity from Edinburgh, and it was a matter of great resentment when, in 1920, the burgh of Leith was merged[31] into the county of Edinburgh. Even today the parliamentary seat is known as 'Edinburgh North and Leith'. With the redevelopment of Leith, Edinburgh has gained the business of a number of cruise liner companies which now provide cruises to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. Leith also has the Royal Yacht Britannia, berthed behind the Ocean Terminal and Easter Road, the home ground of Hibernian.

At the United Kingdom Census 2001, Edinburgh had a population of 448,624, a rise of 7.1% on 1991.[32] Estimates in 2008 placed the total resident population at 471,650 split between 227,922 males and 243,728 females.[34] This makes Edinburgh the second largest city in Scotland after Glasgow.[32] According to the European Statistical agency, Eurostat, Edinburgh sits at the heart of a Larger Urban Zone covering 665 square miles (1,724 km2) with a population of 778,000.[35]

The cramped tenements of the Royal Mile were once home to most of Edinburgh's population.

Edinburgh has a higher proportion of those aged between 16 and 24 than the Scottish average, but has a lower proportion of those classified as elderly or pre-school.[34] Over 95% of Edinburgh respondents classed their ethnicity as White in 2001, with those identifying as being Indian and Chinese at 1.6% and 0.8% of the population respectively.[36] In 2001, 22% of the population were born outside Scotland with the largest group of immigrants coming from England at 12.1%.[36] Since the 2004 enlargement of the European Union, a large number of migrants from the accession states such as Poland, Lithuania and Latvia have settled in the city, with many working in the service industry.[37]

There is evidence of human habitation on Castle Rock from as early as 3,000 years ago.[38] A census conducted by the Edinburgh presbytery in 1592 estimated a population of 8,000 scattered equally north and south of the High Street which runs down the spine of the ridge leading from the Castle.[39] In the 18th and 19th Centuries, the population began to expand rapidly, rising from 49,000 in 1751 to 136,000 in 1831 primarily due to rural out-migration.[40] As the population swelled, overcrowding problems in the Old Town, particularly in the cramped tenements that lined the present day Royal Mile and Cowgate, were exacerbated.[40] Sanitary problems and disease were rife.[40] The construction of James Craig's masterplanned New Town from 1766 onwards witnessed the migration of the professional classes from the Old Town to the lower density, higher quality surroundings taking shape on land to the north.[41] Expansion southwards from the Royal Mile/Cowgate axis of the Old Town saw more tenements being built in the 19th century, giving rise to present day areas such as Marchmont, Newington and Bruntsfield.[42]

Early 20th century population growth coincided with lower density suburban development in areas such as Gilmerton, Liberton and South Gyle. As the city expanded to the south and west, detached and semi detached villas with large gardens replaced tenements as the predominant building style. Nonetheless, the 2001 census revealed that over 55% of Edinburgh's population live in tenements or high rise flats compared to the Scottish average of 33.5%.[43]

Culture

Festivals

Culturally, Edinburgh is best known for the Edinburgh Festival, although this is in fact a series of separate events, which run from the end of July until early September each year. The longest established festival is the Edinburgh International Festival, which first ran in 1947. The International Festival centres on a programme of high-profile theatre productions and classical music performances, featuring international directors, conductors, theatre companies and orchestras.

The International Festival has since been taken over in both size and popularity by the Edinburgh Fringe. What began as a programme of marginal acts has become the largest arts festival in the world, with 1867 different shows being staged in 2006, in 261 venues. Comedy is now one of the mainstays of the Fringe, with numerous notable comedians getting their 'break' here, often through receipt of the Perrier Award.

Celebrations

A Viking longship being burnt during Edinburgh's annual Hogmanay celebrations.

Equally famous is the annual Hogmanay celebration. Originally simply a street party held on Princes Street and the Royal Mile, the Hogmanay event has been officially organised since 1993. In 1996, over 300,000 people attended, leading to ticketing of the main street party in later years, with a limit of 100,000 tickets. Hogmanay now covers four days of processions, concerts and fireworks, with the actual street party commencing on New Year's Eve. During the street party Princes Street is accessible by ticket only, allowing access into Princes Street where there are live bands playing, food and drink stalls, and a clear view of the castle and fireworks. Alternative tickets are available for entrance into the Princes Street Gardens concert and Ceilidh, where well known artists perform and ticket holders are invited to participate in traditional Scottish Ceilidh dancing. The event attracts thousands of people from all over the world. On the night of 30 April, the Beltane Fire Festival takes place on Edinburgh's Calton Hill. The festival involves a procession followed by the re-enactment of scenes inspired by pagan spring fertility celebrations.

Edinburgh has two repertory cinemas, the Edinburgh Filmhouse, and the Cameo, and the independent Dominion Cinema, as well as the usual range of multiplexes.

Edinburgh has a healthy popular music scene. Occasional large gigs are staged at Murrayfield and Meadowbank, whilst venues such as the Corn Exchange, HMV Picture House and the Liquid Room cater for smaller events.

Edinburgh is also home to a flourishing group of contemporary composers such as Nigel Osborne, Peter Nelson, Lyell Cresswell, Hafliði Hallgrímsson, Edward Harper, Robert Crawford, Robert Dow, and John McLeod[45] whose music is heard regularly on BBC Radio 3 and throughout the UK.

Edinburgh is also home to several of Scotland's galleries and organisations dedicated to contemporary visual art. Significant strands of this infrastructure include: The Scottish Arts Council, Inverleith House, Edinburgh College of Art, Talbot Rice Gallery (University of Edinburgh), The Travelling Gallery, Edinburgh Printmakers, WASPS, Artlink, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Doggerfisher, Stills, Collective Gallery, Out of the Blue, The Embassy, Magnifitat, Sleeper, Total Kunst, OneZero, Standby, Portfolio Magazine, MAP magazine, Edinburgh's One O'Clock Gun Periodical and Product magazine and the Edinburgh Annuale.

The council-owned City Arts Centre shows regular art exhibitions. Across the road, The Fruitmarket Gallery offers world class exhibitions of contemporary art, featuring work by British and international artists with both emerging and established international reputations.

There are world class private galleries, including: Doggerfisher and Ingleby Gallery, the latter serving up a constantly challenging exhibition program of Museum quality work.

Nightlife and shopping

Edinburgh has a large number of pubs, clubs and restaurants. The traditional areas were the Grassmarket, Lothian Road and surrounding streets, Rose Street and its surrounds and the Bridges. In recent years George Street in the New Town has grown in prominence, with a large number of new, upmarket public houses and nightclubs opening, along with a number on the parallel Queen Street. Stockbridge and the waterfront at Leith are also increasingly fashionable areas, with a number of pubs, clubs and restaurants.

The largest nightclubs are Lava & Ignite (formerly Cavendish) and City Nightclub, as well as Edinburgh University's student union, Potterrow. Smaller commercial venues include Base, Faith, Stereo, and Karma. In recent years night clubs on George Street such as Opal Lounge, Lulu's, Why Not and Shanghai have become popular.

The main alternative, indie and rock nights are hosted at The Hive, Opium and Studio 24. The Liquid Room is currently undergoing a full re-fit after being damaged by the fire that destroyed an Indian restaurant which was situated behind it in December 2008. It is expected to reopen within the year.

The underground nightclub scene playing music such as techno, house, electronica, drum & bass and dubstep has suffered in recent years with the closure of Wilkie House, The Honeycomb, The Venue, La Belle Angele (destroyed in the Cowgate fire) and Luna (formerly eGo). Cabaret Voltaire, The Bongo Club, and Sneaky Pete's now host the majority of underground events held in Edinburgh.

There are two dedicated gay clubs in Edinburgh, CC Blooms and GHQ; several other club venues have LGBT nights.

A fortnightly publication, The List, is dedicated to life in Edinburgh and around, and contains listings of all nightclubs, as well as music, theatrical and other events. The List also regularly produces specialist guides such as its Food and Drink guide and its guide to the Edinburgh Festivals.

Princes Street is the main shopping area in the city centre, with a wide range of stores from souvenir shops, from chains such as Boots and H&M and institutions like Jenners. George Street, north of Princes Street, is home to a number of upmarket chains and independent stores. The St. James Centre, at the eastern end of George Street and Princes Street, hosts a substantial number of national chains including a large John Lewis. Multrees Walk, adjacent to the St. James Centre, is a recent addition to the city centre, hosting brands such as Louis Vuitton, Emporio Armani, Mulberry and Calvin Klein, with Harvey Nichols anchoring the development.

Rugby Union

The Scotland national rugby union team plays at Murrayfield Stadium, which is owned by the Scottish Rugby Union and is also used as a venue for other events, including music concerts. Edinburgh's professional rugby team, Edinburgh Rugby, play in the Celtic Magners League at Murrayfield. It is the largest capacity stadium in Scotland. Raeburn Place held the first rugby international game between Scotland and England. Edinburgh is also home to numerous smaller rugby teams including The Edinburgh Academicals (who play at Raeburn Place), The Murrayfield Wanderers and several teams from the universities in Edinburgh.

The Edinburgh Diamond Devils is a baseball club claiming its first Scottish Championship in 1991 as the "Reivers." 1992 saw the team repeat as national champions, becoming the first team to do so in league history and saw the start of the club's first youth team, the Blue Jays. The name of the club was changed in 1999.

In American football, the Scottish Claymores played WLAF/NFL Europe games at Murrayfield, including their World Bowl 96 victory. From 1995 to 1997 they played all their games there, from 1998 to 2000 they split their home matches between Murrayfield and Glasgow's Hampden Park, then moved to Glasgow full-time, with one final Murrayfield appearance in 2002. The city's most successful non-professional team are the Edinburgh Wolves who currently play at Meadowbank Stadium.

The Edinburgh Marathon has been held in the city since 2003 with more than 13,000 taking part annually. The city also has a half-marathon, as well as a number of 10 km and 5 km races, including a 5 km race on the first of January each year.

Edinburgh has a speedway team, the Edinburgh Monarchs, which is currently based at the Lothian Arena in Armadale, West Lothian.

Economy

Edinburgh has the strongest economy of any city in the UK outside London.[citation needed] The strength of Edinburgh's economy is reflected by its GVA per capita, which was measured at £28,238 in 2005.[48] The economy of Edinburgh and its hinterland has recently been announced as one of the fastest growing city regions in Europe.[citation needed] Education and health, finance and business services, retailing and tourism are the largest employers.[49] The economy of Edinburgh is largely based around the services sector — centred around banking, financial services, higher education, and tourism. Unemployment in Edinburgh is low at 1.9%, which has been consistently below the Scottish average.[50] Banking has been a part of the economic life of Edinburgh for over 300 years, with the establishment of the Bank of Scotland by an act of the original Parliament of Scotland in 1695. Today, together with the burgeoning financial services industry, with particular strengths in insurance and investment underpinned by the presence of Edinburgh based firms such as Scottish Widows and Standard Life, Edinburgh has emerged as Europe's sixth largest financial centre.[51] The Royal Bank of Scotland opened its new global headquarters at Gogarburn in the west of the city in October 2005; its registered office remains in St. Andrew Square.

Since 2007, the council has operated a committee structure, headed by the Lord Provost, who chairs the full council and acts as a figurehead for the city.[57] The Provost, currently George Grubb, also serves as ex officio the Lord Lieutenant of the city.[58] A Leader and Policy & Strategy Committee, appointed by the full council, are responsible for the day-to-day running of the city administration. Jenny Dawe has been the Council Leader since May 2007. Councillors are also appointed to sit on the boards of public bodies such as Lothian and Borders Police and the Forth Estuary Transport Authority.[57]

Transport

Edinburgh Airport is the principal international gateway to the city, handling almost 9 million passengers in 2008. In anticipation of rising passenger numbers, the airport operator BAA outlined a draft masterplan in 2006 to provide for the expansion of the airfield and terminal building.[61] The possibility of building a second runway to cope with an increased number of aircraft movements has also been mooted.[61]

Edinburgh has been without a tram system since 16 November 1956.[66] However, following parliamentary approval in 2007, construction began on a new Edinburgh tram network in early 2008, which has led to major disruption to transport services[citation needed]. The first stage of the project was expected to be operational by July 2011[67] but is unlikely to be working before the beginning of 2012.[68] The first phase will see trams running from the airport in the west of the city, through the centre of Edinburgh and down Leith Walk to Ocean Terminal and Newhaven.[69] The next phase of the project will see trams run from Haymarket through Ravelston and Craigleith to Granton on the waterfront.[69] Future proposals include a line going west from the airport to Ratho and Newbridge, and a line running along the length of the waterfront.[70]

Hospitals

Hospitals in Edinburgh include the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, which includes Edinburgh University Medical School, and the Western General Hospital, which includes a large cancer treatment centre and the nurse-led Minor Injuries Clinic. There is one private hospital, Murrayfield Hospital, owned by Spire Healthcare. The Royal Infirmary is the main Accident & Emergency hospital not just for Edinburgh but also Midlothian and East Lothian, and is the headquarters of NHS Lothian, making it a centric focus for Edinburgh and its hinterland. The Royal Edinburgh Hospital specialises in mental health; it is situated in Morningside. The Royal Hospital for Sick Children is located in Sciennes Road; it is popularly known as the 'Sick Kids'.

Religious communities

The fan vaulted ceiling dominates the interior of St John's Church in central Edinburgh.

Other faiths

Edinburgh Central Mosque - Edinburgh's main mosque and Islamic Centre is located on Potterrow on the city's southside, near Bristo Square. It was opened in the late 1990s and the construction was largely financed by a gift from King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.[80] The first recorded presence of a Jewish community in Edinburgh dates back to the late 17th century.[citation needed] Edinburgh's Orthodoxsynagogue is located in Salisbury Road, which was opened in 1932 and can accommodate a congregation of 2000. A Liberal congregation also meets in the city. There is also a SikhGurdwara and HinduMandir in the city which are both located in the Leith district. Edinburgh Buddhist Centre, part of the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, is situated by the Meadows.

Twinning arrangements

The City of Edinburgh has entered into 11 international twinning arrangements since 1954.[92] Most of the arrangements are styled as 'Twin Cities', but the agreement with Kraków is designated as a 'Partner City'.[92] The agreement with the Kyoto Prefecture, concluded in 1994, is officially styled as a 'Friendship Link', reflecting its status as the only region to be twinned with Edinburgh.[92]

Edinburgh is a huge city with several district articles containing sightseeing, restaurant,
nightlife and accommodation listings — consider printing them
all.

Holyrood Palace

Edinburgh (Gaelic: Dùn Èideann; [1]) is the capital of Scotland located in the Central Belt region of the
country. With a population of approximately 450,000 (1 million in
the city region), "Auld Reekie" (Edinburgh) manages to combine both
ancient and modern in a uniquely Scottish atmosphere. Watched over
by the imposing castle - the symbol of the city - Edinburgh
combines medieval relics, Georgian grandeur and a powerful layer of
modern life with contemporary avant-garde. In Edinburgh, medieval
palaces rub shoulders with the best of modern architecture, Gothic
churches with amazing museums and galleries. Scotland's throbbing
night-life centre, Edinburgh - "the Athens of the North" - is also
a feast for the mind and the senses, playing host to great
restaurants, shops and an unequaled programme of city festivals
throughout the year. Hogmanay - the Scottish New
Year - kicks off the festivities, which culminate in the high
summer with the Tattoo, the International and the Fringe, amongst
many others.

The Old and New Towns of Edinburgh were listed
as World Heritage Sites by
UNESCO in 1995. In 2004, Edinburgh became the first member of the
UNESCO Creative Cities
initiative when it was designated a City of
Literature.

In a 2009 poll by YouGov, Edinburgh was voted the most
desirable city to live in the UK.

Edinburgh districts

Entrance to Edinburgh Castle

Railbridge on the Firth of Forth, an engineering marvel constructed
in 1890

The Old Town— Edinburgh's medieval heart
along the Royal Mile, which runs from the Castle to Holyrood
Palace. Most of the really famous sites are in this area.

The New Town— The other half of
the city centre is the Georgian (late 18th century) New
Town. The commercial heart of the city, this is what
shopaholics make a beeline for.

Stockbridge and
Canonmills— Exclusive neighbourhood to the north of the New
Town, some interesting independent shopping plus the most relaxing
spot in the city - the Royal Botanic Garden.

Leith—
Edinburgh's independent-minded port area is a destination in its
own right.

Edinburgh/East— The beach district of
Portobello and the historic village of Duddingston both lie in the
east of the city.

Edinburgh/South— A popular part of town
for students, so there are plenty of interesting places to eat and
drink. Further out is Edinburgh's Outdoor Playground of
the Pentland Hills, and the intriguing Roslin Chapel.

Edinburgh/West— Edinburgh's excellent
zoo is here, plus the temple of sport that is Murrayfield rugby
stadium.

South
Queensferry— On the north-western fringe of the city, site of
the contrasting engineering marvels that are the Forth
Bridges (one road and one rail). Quite a few hotels here
and with good transport links to the city centre it can be a good
base for visitors.

Understand

Edinburgh is on the east coast of Scotland's central Lowlands,
situated on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth. Edinburgh's
landscape is the product of ancient volcanism (both the Castle crag
and Arthur's Seat are the eroded plugs of volcanoes) and more
recent glaciation (carving out valleys south of the castle and the
old Nor'Loch, presently the site of the Princes Street Gardens).
Impress the locals by knowing that Princes Street is the
correct spelling (dedicated plurally and not
possessively for King George III's sons - hence the absence of an
apostrophe). Don't make the mistake of pronouncing it Princess
Street - though many of the locals won't know the difference! And
watch out for these two commonly mis-pronounced streets as well:
Cockburn (coe-burn) and Buccleuch (buh-clue) are nearly always
gotten wrong, to the amusement of the locals.

Orientation

Edinburgh's historic center is bisected by Princes Street
Gardens, a broad swathe of parkland in the heart of city.
Southwards of the gardens is the castle, perched on top of an
extinct volcanic crag, and flanked by the medieval streets of the
Old
Town following the Royal Mile along the ridge to the east. To
the north of Princes Street Gardens lies Princes Street itself -
Edinburgh's main shopping boulevard - and the Georgian period New Town,
built after 1766 on a regular grid plan.

History

Edinburgh has been the royal capital of Scotland since 1437.

Profile

Edinburgh is noted as a long-lived literary capital of the
English-speaking world.

The great Scottish historical novelist Sir Walter Scott was born
in the city and has his great monument on Princes Street. Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle was also a native of Edinburgh.

More recently, Edinburgh has variously been the home and
inspiration for such well-known modern writers as Muriel Spark
(author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie), Irvine Welsh
(author of the 1993 novel Trainspotting, set in the gritty
district of Leith), Ian Rankin (a crime writer best known for the
Inspector Rebus series, set in Edinburgh), Alexander
McCall Smith (The No. 1 Lady Detective's Agency and
several novels set in the Scottish capital) and J.K. Rowling of
Harry Potter fame.

Climate

Edinburgh's climate is most comfortable for the traveler from
May to September. That said, the weather in Edinburgh is always
changeable and visitors should expect both sunshine and rain,
whatever the season. Edinburgh tends to get windy while it rains as
well, so be sure to pack either a raincoat or a sturdy umbrella!
Many a tourist has abandoned an inverted umbrella due to the
persistant, whipping winds. Summer, the main festival season,
combines long daylight hours with lengthy evenings (being so far
north, it rarely gets dark before 10 or 11 at night!). Winter can
be bitterly cold, with short daylight hours, but Edinburgh has an
abundance of indoor attractions and activities that make the cold
winter days fly by. In other words, bring a coat big lad, will
ya?

The Hub on the Royal Mile, the former Tollbooth Kirk is the
headquarters of the Edinburgh International Festival

When to go

Travellers should note that Edinburgh becomes overwhelmingly
crowded (accommodation-wise) during the main festival periods of
high summer (August to early September) and Hogmanay (around New
Year's Day / 1 January). Visitors at these times should plan
well ahead (even more than a year in advance!) for booking
central accommodation and event tickets at these times.

A dedicated airport bus service, Airlink
Express[3], service 100, runs from
outside the terminal building to Edinburgh city center (Waverley
Bridge) at least every 10 minutes until 00.22 and then every 30
minutes until 04.45. The bus leaves from Waverley Bridge (opposite
entrance to train station) for the Airport at the same intervals
24/7. Adult fares are £3.50 for a single, £6 for an open return and
the journey takes an average 25 mins.

A cheaper alternative is the ordinary Lothian Buses service 35,
which runs from the bus stance outside the arrivals building to
Ocean Terminal via the Royal Mile/High Street. Although much
slower, and with less provision for baggage than the 100, it is far
cheaper at £1.20 single, and also allows the use of day tickets and
other options that work on all Lothian Buses services - a great
option for getting straight to the city if travelling light, or on
a budget.

By train

The main railway station in Edinburgh is called Waverley
Railway Station[5] and is
an attraction in itself. First opened in 1846, Waverley Station was
rebuilt 1892-1902. It lies between the old town and modern
Edinburgh, adjacent to Princes Street, Edinburgh Castle and the
Princes Street Gardens, where it serves over 14 million people per
annum. Despite various refurbishments, the past still survives in
the station's elaborate, domed ceiling where wreathed cherubs leap
amid a wealth of scrolled ironwork.

The "charged by the piece" left luggage service at Waverley
railway station is much more expensive than the lockers a few
blocks away at the Edinburgh Bus station on St. Andrew's
Square.

Waverley Station is a major hub for the Scottish rail network,
operated by First Scotrail [6]. There is an hourly
service to Dundee and Aberdeen, and two hourly to
Inverness. Shuttle
trains to Glasgow (Queen
Street) run every 15 minutes throughout the day, dropping to 30
minutes on evenings and Sundays, and the journey takes 45-50
minutes. Some services run to Glasgow Central instead, but run via
Lanarkshire with many more stops. Certain National Express East
Coast trains originating from London also continue to Glasgow
Central - again your ticket will be valid on these services but the
journey will take slightly longer than the shuttle.

The vast majority of train services to Edinburgh from London
(and most of eastern England) are operated by East Coast (which
replaced National Express on 14 November 2009) [7]; an hourly service
leaves from London Kings Cross station throughout the day until
6PM. Journey time is between 4hrs 20min and 5 hours. The cheapest
tickets (£16 to £90) are advance single (one-way) fares for a fixed
train time bought 2-12 weeks in advance, and the flexible Saver
Ticket (roughly £100 single or return) is not valid at some times
to/from London. Virgin Trains [8] operate a once daily
service from London Euston via the West Coast route and a 2 hourly
service from Birmingham New Street with an average journey time of
4hrs 4 mins.

For a different travel experience from London, try the
Caledonian Sleeper service
[9], which runs every night from London's Euston Station except
Saturdays, and the journey takes approximately 8 hours. Bear in
mind that if you are travelling alone you may have to share the
sleeping compartment with a stranger of the same sex. Tickets can
be booked in the usual manner at any main line railway station in
Britain, and the cost of a return journey to Edinburgh from London
varies from around £100 for two one-way "Advance" tickets rising to
the full open return fare of £165. You can also travel for around
£23 one-way in a seated carriage or £95 return (full fare).
BritRail passes can be used to reserve tickets on the sleeper
trains.

However, heavily discounted one-way tickets on the Caledonian
Sleeper known as "Bargain Berths" are available for £19, £29, £39
or £49 depending on how early you book, but confusingly these
cannot be bought from a railway station in the normal way - they
can only be purchased from the First ScotRail website and you will
be emailed an e-ticket (similar to an airline) which you must print
out and show to the conductor at the platform before getting on the
train.

Trains to other English cities are operated by Arriva Cross
Country (services via York, Birmingham and central England to the
south coast and West Country) and Trans-Pennine Express (services
to Manchester via Carlisle) from Waverley.

There is a second railway station in the center of Edinburgh,
Haymarket, which is around a mile to the west of Waverley. If you
are arriving from the north, west or south-west, Haymarket is a
better station to exit at if you are heading straight for the
airport, zoo, or modern art gallery, or if your accommodation is on
the west side of town, as you will avoid the city center traffic
and it is on the major west-bound bus routes.

Both Waverley and Haymarket stations had ticket barriers
installed in 2004 so you will need to purchase a ticket in order to
enter or leave the platform area. If you get on a train at an
unmanned station you can purchase a ticket from the conductor on
the train, or from a ticket inspector near the barrier gates -
there is usually a long queue during the peak rush hour period. The
barrier gates will retain single journey tickets, so be sure to get
a receipt if you need one. If you have the larger kind of ticket
that does not fit in the barrier you will need to go to the gate
which is manned by a member of staff who will check your ticket and
let you through. If you do not have a ticket, you will need to go
to the ticket office behind the barrier (platform 14 at Waverley)
to buy one.

Edinburgh Park is a new train station that opened in 2004, which
is some miles from the city center, serves business parks and "The
Gyle" shopping center. It should be noted that direct trains from
Glasgow do not call at this
station. You must either change in Linlithgow or, travel past Edinburgh Park
and change at Haymarket to double back, on a train bound for Dunblane or Bathgate.

By road

By road, Edinburgh can be reached most immediately from the M8
(west from Glasgow), M9
(north-west from Stirling), A90/M90 (north from Perth and
Dundee), the A1 (south-east
from Newcastle upon Tyne and north-east
England) and A701/M74 (south-west from Carlisle and north-western England).

From London the fastest
route to Edinburgh is the M1 motorway, followed by the A1(M) and
the A1 - a journey of 398 miles and approximately 8-9 hrs driving
time.

Edinburgh is not a particularly car friendly city with the
myriad of one-way streets and the Old Town's medieval layout, and
the dedication of parking wardens to ticketing anything that is not
moving is legendary. In addition, the works to install the new tram
line will be ongoing until 2011, and have caused numerous road
closures and diversions throughout the City Centre and Leith.
Finding parking can be difficult, though there are several
multi-story car parks in the city center (Castle Terrace for the
West End, try St James Center at the East End (access from York
Place). It is often cheaper and quicker to use the new Park and
Ride systems now in place on all approaches to the City, (National
Park and Ride Directory is available online
[10]), so it's even easy to just abandon your car on the
outskirts. For visitors arriving from the M8, follow directions for
Edinburgh Airport to reach Ingliston Park and Ride; this facility
is half a mile from the airport terminal.

By bus

The city is served by the major inter-city bus companies from
around Scotland and England. Most long distance services start and
end in the Bus Station in St Andrew Square. The left luggage
lockers at the Bus station are much cheaper than the "charged by
the piece" left luggage service at Waverly train station.

Norfolk Line[11] run a
thrice-weekly service from Zeebrugge, Belgium to Rosyth in Fife,
only 12 miles from Edinburgh. The crossing takes approximately 20
hours. Ferry foot passengers should make use of the free shuttle
bus service to Inverkeithing Rail Station from where there are four
trains per hour to Edinburgh.

A ferry/bus service from Belfast to Edinburgh can be booked through
Citylink [12].

Passenger cruise liners are a common sight in summer at Leith Docks,
where a new terminal has been built next to the Ocean Terminal
shopping/leisure complex.

Get around

Edinburgh is a compact city - most of the sights and major
tourist attractions are within the Old Town and
New Town and are no further than a 15 minute walk
apart. Walking along elegant or atmospheric streets is one of the
pleasures of the city. There are however, a number of hills to be
navigated; for example from Princes Street, up The
Mound towards Edinburgh Castle requires
some significant legwork, but it's worth it for the views en
route.

The city's public transport system is relatively poor next to
London and other major European cities - being heavily reliant on
buses, which have to navigate the city's sometimes bustling
traffic. Congestion charging similar to that found in the English
capital has been proposed but was defeated at a referendum.
Equally, the suburban railway network is very sparse compared to
that of Glasgow, although there have been some slow and steady
improvements over the years with work now begun on a tram system
linking the city centre to Leith and to the airport. The tram line
is due to open in 2011.

By bus

Edinburgh has two main bus companies, Lothian[13], which is run by
the Edinburgh City Council, and First[14],
a private operator. These two companies share the same bus stops,
and the fares are identical, but the route numbers are not
interchangeable, and neither are the tickets.

Lothian Bus in the new livery, at Canonmills

Lothian are the larger operator in the city
itself whose distinctive burgundy and cream colored buses had
become as much a symbol of Edinburgh as its buildings. For some
reason Lothian see this as a negative and this livery has now
almost completely been phased in favour of the new colours which
are predominantly white, with red and gold rhombuses of different
sizes along the sides. Some of the more important routes also have
different colours on the front and roof of the bus, to help
passengers spot their required bus. Single tickets are £1.20 (70p
for under 16s) and are only valid for one journey (i.e. if you have
to change bus you have to buy another £1.20 ticket!). Bear in mind
that bus drivers will not give change, so save up those £1 and 20p
coins. Some busy stops on main routes have red ticket machines,
which sell single tickets for £1.10, as well as day tickets (no
discount). The machines don't give change either.

Lothian offer an all-day ticket for £3 (as of January 09) that
covers all transport (except sight-seeing, airport express and
night services). The all-day ticket is a great way to see the city
without the expense of the tour buses, as you can get on and off
all Lothian buses for the whole day! Kids day tickets are
generously discounted to £2.40.

Lothian are in the process of rolling out their
BusTracker[15] service. This
provides "real time" bus service information. Electronic signs are
being installed along major routes, showing the wait time for the
next bus on each service at that stop. Online, it's possible to
view the information for every bus stop in the city, not just those
stops with electronic signs. Every stop has a unique 8 figure code,
which are listed on the website and also displayed at the stop. You
can access Bus Tracker via a mobile phone at
mobile.mybustracker.co.uk. An free iPhone app named "Edinbus"
provides similar information with route maps and a stop
locator.

First[16]
buses mostly service further-flung areas to the east and west of
the city.

Edinburgh Coach Lines now (since July 2009)
operate service 13 [17], a bus which will be
of use to many visitors as it is the only route serving the
National Gallery of Modern Art and the Dean Gallery. Single tickets
are in line with Lothian fares at £1.20 for adults and 70p for
children (U16). Lothian season tickets and day tickets are not
valid on service 13.

There are also four companies that operate sightseeing buses [18], all of which are
now owned by Lothian Buses. All have a policy that a sightseeing
ticket is valid for 24 hours, so you can get around central
Edinburgh quite handily using the sightseeing buses. Each
sightseeing bus follows a different route around the city, but they
all start and finish at Waverley Bridge, adjacent to Waverley
Station on Princes Street.

By train

A small number of suburban rail routes run from Waverley
station, most of the stations lying in the south west and south
east suburbs of the city, and are useful for reaching the outer
suburbs and towns of Balerno, Currie, Wester Hailes, Portobello,
Prestonpans, Musselburgh and a useful link to Edinburgh Park which
is adjacent to the Gyle shopping complex. Services to North
Berwick, Bathgate or Glasgow Central will make stops at these
various stations. Note that standard National Rail fares apply to
these trains - there are no credible daily season ticket options
available. Check at the station before you board!

The "charged by the piece" left luggage service at Waverly train
station is far more expensive than the storage lockers a few blocks
away at the Bus station on St Andrew's square.

By car

Central Edinburgh is a nightmare to drive in, particularly the
Old Town with its tangle of medieval streets with their associated
one way systems. The New Town fares slightly better, but the
scourge of the city is the infamous parking attendants, locally
known as "Blue Meanies" who mercilessly swoop on vehicles which may
have only been illegally parked for a matter of minutes. Edinburgh
operates a "controlled parking zone" - on-street parking is illegal
within a large central area (see map
[19]) without a residents parking permit. Parking fines are £40
and vehicles parked in an obstructive manner are liable to be towed
away with a £150 release fee to be paid for its retrieval. Even the
suburbs (especially Morningside, The Grange, The Meadows) have
little parking available (and on-street parking is illegal within
the controlled parking zone). Take a bus and/or walk. Leith seems
to fare a bit better for parking, but there's no guarantee. Park
and Ride facilities provide access to the city center
[20]. Additionally, drivers should take heed of tram
construction currently affecting Haymarket and the west end of
Princes Street, although most of Princes Street is now clear.

By foot

Edinburgh is a beautiful city that's full of history. There is
no better way to see it than to walk.

By tram

There is a single tram line currently being built in Edinburgh
that will link Leith on the east to Edinburgh Airport on the west,
passing through the New Town in the city centre. This is due to be
finished by 2011. As it will link the airport, zoo, both main train
stations, Princes Street, Leith and the Cruise Liner terminal it
may be helpful for some visitors to the city. However, buses are
likely to remain the main and most practical method of public
transport in Edinburgh for the foreseeable future.

By taxi

Like most major British cities, Edinburgh offers a choice
between Black Cabs, carrying up to 5 passengers, which can
be hailed on the street, and minicabs, which must be
pre-booked. Black cabs display an orange light above the windscreen
to indicate that they are available to hire. It's usually quite
easy to find a cab in and around the city centre, and on the main
radial routes running out of the centre. There are also Taxi Ranks
dotted around the city, where black cabs will line up to be hired.
Taxi Rank locations include:

Outside the main entrances of Haymarket and Waverley train
stations.

Opposite the Caledonian Hotel and Sheraton Hotel (both near the
West End), The George Hotel (east end of George Street) and the
Crowne Plaza Hotel (High Street, Royal Mile).

Festival Cars (minicabs - mostly saloon cars
but also have people carriers with up to 8 seats. Let them know the
number in your party when you book) - 0131 552 1777

See

For the budget-conscious and/or avid sightseer, the
Edinburgh Pass[22] is well worth
bearing in mind, offering a maximum of £155 worth of entry to 27 of
Edinburgh's top attractions, a 90-page guidebook, retail and
restaurant offers and discounts. All this, as well as free public
transport around the city and airport transfers. A one-day pass
costs £24, two days £36, three days £48. Can be purchased online or
at Tourist Information Centers.

Cannons on the northern defenses of Edinburgh Castle

If you are staying in Scotland a little while, it might be worth
getting a Historic Scotland Membership[23]. Passes last
for a year, and cost about £40 for adults and £30 for concessions
(including full-time students). They provide unlimited access to
about 70 paying sites in Scotland, including Edinburgh's Castle and
Craigmillar Castle. You also get a lot of discounts for their
shops, a quarterly magazine, and 50% off all English, Welsh and
Manx historical sites.

Edinburgh Doors Open Day[24]
is an annual event, co-ordinated by the Cockburn Association, where
many important and/or historic buildings across the city open up
their doors to the public at no charge. Many of the buildings are
not normally accessible so this can present a unique opportunity to
see some of the city's lesser-known architectural marvels. It
usually takes place on the last weekend in September. Brochures
with details of the participating sites, opening times, access
details etc., can be picked up from city libraries in the run up to
the day, or downloaded from the website.

Edinburgh Castle, [25].
Edinburgh Castle, home to the Edinburgh
Tattoo, is a magnificently situated royal fortress located on one
of the highest points in the city. The castle has been continuously
in use for 1000 years and is in excellent condition. (Old
Town)edit

Abbey and Palace of Holyroodhouse[26]— The
Palace is a royal residence, and hosts the Queen's Gallery
containing a collection of art from the Royal Collection. (Old
Town)

St Giles' Cathedral[27]— The historic
City Church of Edinburgh is also known as the High Kirk of
Edinburgh and takes its name from the city's patron saint. (Old
Town)

Mary King's Close[28]— Warriston's
Close (opposite St Giles' Cathedral), open daily except Christmas
Day - a slice of Edinburgh's medieval history, preserved since
being closed over in the 18th century - watch out for the haunting.
(Old
Town)

Gladstone's Land
[29]— In the Lawnmarket at the top of the Royal Mile. It is a
17th century Old Town tenement (known as a 'Land') decorated with
period furniture. It has an impressive painted ceiling. (Old
Town)

Greyfriars Kirkyard is a very old graveyard in
Old Town off the Southwest corner of George IV Bridge, made famous
by Disney as the home of Greyfriars Bobby. (Old
Town)

Camera Obscura[30]— Castle Hill.
Over 150 years old, the Camera Obscura focuses light from the top
of the tower onto a large dish in a dark room below, allowing a 360
degree view of all of Edinburgh! (Old Town)

The Scottish Parliament[31],
(eastern end of the Royal Mile, opposite the Palace of Holyrood
House)— A unique building designed by the Spanish (Catalan)
architect Enric Miralles. It is necessary to get (free) tickets to
watch the Parliament in session from the Public Gallery. (Old
Town)

Scott Monument, East Princes Street Gardens.
Built in 1846 to commemorate the life of
Sir Walter Scott after his death in 1832, the Gothic spire monument
allows you to climb 200 ft above the city center to enjoy fantastic
views.(New
Town)Admission £3.00.
edit

The Royal Yacht Britannia, Ocean Terminal, open Jan-Mar &
Nov-Dec 10AM-5PM, Apr-Jun & Sep & Oct 10.00AM-5.30PM, Jul
9.30AM-5.30PM, Aug 9.30AM-6PM last entry 1.5 hrs before closing,
closed Christmas and New Year’s Days, admission adult £10, seniors
£8.75, child 5-17 yrs and students with ID £8.75, children under 5
free - decommissioned from royal use in recent years and voted one
of Edinburgh’s best new attractions, Britannia offers visitors the
chance to tour the royal apartments and view a selection of the
many gifts offered to the royals by dignitaries worldwide. (Leith)

Penguin Parade

Royal Botanic Garden[32],
Inverleith Row (East Gate) / Arboretum Place (West Gate), Stockbridge. Very
impressive gardens with a collection of interesting plants. Great
place to wander around on a sunny day, or to sit and have a picnic.
Free entry to the gardens, entry to the glasshouses costs £3.50
adults, £3 concessions, £1 children. (Stockbridge and
Canonmills)

Rosslyn Chapel Take bus number 15 to see this
chapel, featured in "The Da Vinci Code" novel and film. (Edinburgh/South)

Museum of Scotland[34] and Royal
Museum[35], Chambers Street, Old Town
tel 0131 247 4422. fax 0131 220 4819. typetalk 18001 0131 247 4422.
email info@nms.ac.uk. The museum mixes innovative modern
architecture with the best of Scotland's heritage. The Royal Museum
has a magnificent airy Victorian atrium now with the
Millennium Clock at one end - arrange to be there
when it is chiming. Exhibits in the Museum of Scotland include
Scottish pottery and weapons from the Roman era and the
Renaissance. Opening hours are 10AM - 5PM Monday to Saturday with
extended opening to 8PM on Tuesdays; and 12PM - 5PM Sundays.
Admission is free.

The National Gallery of Scotland, The Mound,
EH2 2EL, New Town tel. +44 (0)131 624 6200,
[36] holds much of
Scotland's fine artwork and carries exhibitions that change
seasonally. The new Western Link was opened in 2004 with an
entrance from Princes Street Gardens. It joins The National Gallery
with the neighbouring Scottish Academy gallery and gives Scotland
it's first world class art space.

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art,
74 Belford Road on the western fringe of the New
Town, +44 131 624 6200, [37] contains a fine
selection of modern art from Scotland and other countries.

The Fruitmarket Gallery, 45 Market St., behind
the Edinburgh Waverley Rail Station, Old Town[38]. Aims to find the
most appropriate way to bring artists and audiences together. It is
a not-for-profit organization and a registered charity. Opening
hours M-Sa 11AM-6PM; Su 12PM-5PM. Admission free.

There are a number of independent galleries in the St
Stephen Street area of Stockbridge

Do

Walk along the Water of Leith, a small river
that meanders through Edinburgh, providing a peaceful haven from
the busy city. Check out the Leith or Stockbridge and
Canonmills sections of the route.

Edinburgh has an excellent theatre and concert life. Europe's
largest theatre, the 3000-seat Edinburgh Playhouse (top of Leith
Walk, New
Town) hosts major West End shows. The Festival Theatre (Old Town)
frequently hosts opera and ballet, and the Usher Hall (Lothian
Road) has weekly orchestral concerts all year round with the Royal
Scottish National Orchestra. The Queen's Hall (South Clerk Street,
(Old
Town) is home to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. For a cheaper
option, the excellent Bedlam Theatre (Bristo
Place, Old
Town) regularly puts on good student theatre and is the home to
Scotland's oldest improvised comedy troupe, The Improverts.

Experience traditional Folk Music at one of
the pubs in the Old Town or Leith which
host regular sessions.

Suntrap Garden. The
Suntrap Garden is a three-acre garden comprises of many gardens
within a single garden, including Italian, Rock, Peat and
Woodland.edit

Festivals

Edinburgh in the summer becomes "festival city" when a huge
number of major national and international arts festivals are
hosted by the city. Most of these occur virtually simultaneously in
August. These cater for a wide variety of interests and
include:

The Edinburgh International Festival[39]— The original that spawned
all the rest. Founded in 1947 and still seen as more "high-brow"
than any of its offspring. Surprisingly, tickets are often priced
more reasonably than for many Fringe shows.

The Edinburgh Military Tattoo[40]— One of the
iconic images of Edinburgh for millions worldwide is the yearly
Tattoo, kilted pipers skirling below the battlements of Edinburgh
Castle. Although tickets sell out well in advance, persevering
individuals are likely to find one or two tickets still for sale
due to cancellations...just be prepared to ask, ask, and ask
again!

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival[41]— As the name might
suggest, this Festival developed on the "Fringe" of the main
International Festival and offers more alternative performances,
with an emphasis on comedy and avant-garde; it is now the largest
arts festival in the world.

The Edge Festival[42] (formerly known as
"T on the Fringe")— Music festival which takes place alongside the
Fringe Festival.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival[45]— Takes place in a
temporary village of marquees at Charlotte Square (West End of
George Street, New Town).

The Edinburgh International Film Festival[46]— Now moved to June
from its former slot in August, so that it no longer clashes with
all the others! Centred around the Filmhouse Cinema on Lothian
Road, though other cinemas take part too.

The Edinburgh International Television
Festival[47]— Predominantly a "closed
shop" for industry professionals only.

Imaginate Festival[49]— Every
May/June, an international festival of children's theatre.

Edinburgh International Science Festival[50]— Takes place
annually in March or April. Emphasis on "hands-on" science.

One important thing to decide when planning a trip to Edinburgh
is whether you wish to go at festival time, which runs from early
August through to mid-September. Hotel rooms in and around the city
are noticeably much more expensive then, and you will need to book
well (at least six months!) in advance.

Hogmanay

Edinburgh in the winter festive season is also huge: whole
sections of central Edinburgh are roped off and accessible only by
ticket for the Scottish New Year Celebrations known as
Hogmanay[51], of which the
Edinburgh Hogmanay is easily the largest in Scotland.

Go to the cinema. Edinburgh has a number of cinemas covering
mainstream, foreign language and arthouse films.

Cineworld, 130 Dundee St, 0871 200 2000.
Mainly mainstream and arthouse. This is about 20 mins on foot from
Princes Street and a Number 1 34 or 35 bus will take you.

See a 6 Nations Championship[52] rugby match at
Murrayfield Stadium [53]. The 6 Nations is
effectively the European Championship of rugby, taking
place every spring between Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Italy
and England. The teams play
each other once per year, and alternate home and away games. In
even-numbered years, England and France visit Murrayfield, while in
odd-numbered years, Scotland host Wales, Ireland and Italy. On the
weekend of a home match, Edinburgh is absolutely full to bursting,
and the atmosphere is like nothing else, especially if Wales or
Ireland are in town. If you plan to visit in February or March, be
sure to check the fixtures and book accommodation well in advance
if your trip coincides with a home match (Edinburgh/West).

Take in a football match at Hibernian
F.C.'s Easter Road Stadium (Leith), or Heart of Midlothian
FC's Tynecastle Park (Edinburgh/West).

Catch a match of the city's professional rugby club,
Edinburgh Rugby, at Murrayfield (Edinburgh/West).

Catch an American Football match at the Edinburgh
Wolves's home venue of Meadowbank Stadium
(Edinburgh/East).

For a different type of rugby, come to Edinburgh when the
Edinburgh Sevens Rugby Festival[54] is held at
Murrayfield—a weekend typically at the end of May. For background,
sevens is a version of rugby union with 7 players per side instead
of the normal 15, and generally sees fast-paced, action-packed
games. Every year, the IRB Sevens
World Series travels the world, pitting the world's top teams
in rugby sevens against each other—and Edinburgh is the circuit's
final stop each season.

Learn

Edinburgh is host to a number of higher and further education
organisations including 4 Universities. The following offer summer
schools of a week or more on topics such as creative writing or
printmaking:

The University of Edinburgh[55] - A prestigious university
over 400 years old.

Edinburgh is a popular destination for language students,
looking to learn English, or build on their existing English
language skills. Most schools offer a "homestay" option where
accommodation is with a local family, which can be a great
introduction to Scottish life. Language schools in the city
include:

Buy

Princes Street (New Town), north of the castle, is
the main shopping street in Edinburgh. It runs through the middle
of the city from the train station to Lothian Road. It contains
large chain stores such as HMV for music, Topshop and H&M for
clothes, tourist oriented shops, and department stores.

There are many more upmarket shops, restaurants and bars on
George Street (New Town), which runs parallel to
Princes Street.

The Royal Mile (Old Town), especially the higher end
near the castle, has many tourist-oriented shops selling Scottish
souvenirs from postcards to whisky and kilts.

Victoria Street (Old Town) is a nice street which is
well worth a visit. You can find colourful buildings and
interesting boutiques which are worth having a look at.

Victoria Street also leads onto the
Grassmarket (Old Town), a street which gives
stunning views of the castle, which dominates right over it, and is
also full of interesting and nice shops, as well as several pubs
and restaurants. The Grassmarket is definitly well worth
visiting.

Multrees Walk (also known as The Walk), for high-end labels
such as Vidal Sasoon, Armani, Vuitton, Harvey Nichols or Calvin
Klein (New
Town).

Other malls include Princes Mall or St James Mall which are
both just off Princes Street, and Ocean Terminal in Leith.

Take home a bottle of Scotland's finest export, a single malt
whisky.

Eat

Edinburgh is a great city for the food lover. There is a vast
selection of eateries scattered throughout every part of the city,
catering for all tastes, prices and styles - from fast-food to
Michelin-starred grandeur. Just be careful around the castle and in
the Grassmarket area, where many restaurants are tourist traps.
Refer to the District
articles for individual listings.

As well as the centre of Edinburgh, it is also worth checking
out Leith and the West End when looking for a place to eat.

Rose St, running parallel to Princes St is a pedestrian precinct
that has a huge number of pubs offering a variety of pub fare
food.

And if you're up to it, be sure to drop by a chippy
(fish and chip shop) and experience such Scottish delights as deep
fried pizza, deep fried hamburgers, deep fried Black Pudding (a
type of blood sausage), deep fried haggis and deep fried Mars bars.
Edinburgh chippys are unique in the UK for offering
salt'n'sauce as standard in place of the
salt'n'vinegar usually provided elsewhere in the country.
The sauce is a kind of runny, vinegary version of HP or
Daddys style brown sauce. Most chippys will provide
vinegar on request if you prefer, but you really should try
salt'n'sauce at least once!

Drink

There are establishments to suit all tastes scattered throughout
every pocket of the city. Be careful, some of the more
local pubs can be a little rough around the edges,
especially in Leith.

For a non-alcoholic beverage give Scotland's second national
drink a try - Irn-Bru . It's a great cure for
hangover.

Edinburgh is a huge city, so all individual listings should be
moved to the appropriate district articles, and this section should
contain a brief overview. Please help to move listings if you are
familiar with this city.

Part of the wall in the lounge of the Whisky Heritage Centre

As for Scotland's first drink, you will find The Scotch
Whisky Heritage Centre[60] at the top of
The Royal Mile, which offers an interactive "tour" of the history
and practise of Whisky distilling. This is a good place to go if
you want to sample whisky, as they have a very large selection
(200+?) at reasonable rates. Older whiskys tend to cost more. The
atmosphere is less pub-like than some might like as it tends to be
fairly quiet - if you don't fancy the interactive tour and just
want to try some whiskys then check the listings for some good
whisky pubs. The food is reasonably priced and fairly good.

Lots of traditional pubs are all around the city.

Many famous traditional pubs on the
Grassmarket, Old Town. These pubs are tourist
traps and tend to be very popular with visiting stag and hen
parties, so locals tend to keep clear.

Lots of modern clubs are around Cowgate and Lothian road
including Base,Gig and
Diva.

Sleep

Edinburgh has been established as a tourist destination for
centuries, and so there is a huge choice of accommodation available
for travellers. If you're planning a visit during festival time
(August), around Christmas and New Year, or on the weekend of a
Scotland home game in the 6-nations Rugby [61] (Mar/Apr, 2 or 3
matches per year), then you will find that all types of
accommodation get booked up well in advance, and a premium may be
applied to the room-rate. It's not impossible to get somewhere to
stay at short notice at these times, but you won't be able to be
fussy and it will probably be expensive.

For those on a budget, there are cheap youth hostels available
with prices from £10 and above. The private/independent hostels
center around the Cowgate area, the lower Royal Mile and its side
streets. The hostels of the HI affiliated Scottish Youth Hostel
Association [62]
can be booked on-line and are an especially good deal during
summer, when the SYHA rents student accommodation as summer
hostels: Single rooms in the city center for a very modest
price.

There are Guest Houses and small hotels dotted around almost
every part of the city, however there are high concentrations in 2
areas, namely around Newington Road and Minto Street on the South side, and
on Pilrig Street and Newhaven Road in Leith. Both areas are within a brisk
15-20 minute walk of the city centre and both have excellent
round-the-clock bus services. If arriving in town without having
booked accomodation, it may be worth heading for one or other of
these areas and looking out for the "Vacancies" signs, though
probably not during the festival or around Hogmanay.

Some of the Guest Houses and even hotels can be booked for as
little as the hostels at certain times of year, while more upmarket
accommodation ranges from boutique B&B's, with just a few
rooms, lovingly run by a family, to world-renowned large 5-star
hotels.

Stay safe

In general Edinburgh can be considered a safe destination for visitors, but like
all other major cities, it pays to remain attentive and use some
common sense.

Try not to get too drunk: if you have had too much, it might be
wise to get a taxi home. There are taxi ranks all around the City
Centre.

Night buses [66] (which depart from
Waverley Bridge next to the train station) are affordable and safe
alternatives to taxis, but stay on the lower deck. Night buses cost
£3.00 for unlimited travel on a single night, so for groups of
three or more travelling moderate distances, taxis can be more cost
effective for single journeys.

Like most other cities, there are some rundown areas. For its
size, Edinburgh does not have many, but there are still some
suburbs that are better avoided by anyone unfamiliar with the area
such as the following:

Direct Dry Cleaning, 47 Bread Street, ☎0844 800 3033, [69]. Offer an interesting service for travellers
where they will take your suitcase, unpack it, wash all the clothes
and repack the case before handing it all back to you.edit

Cash Machines

Almost all cash machines in Edinburgh will dispense Scottish
bank notes, but there are a few listed here that usually have Bank
of England notes, which may be convenient if you are leaving
Scotland, (for more info see Scotland#Currency).

HSBC, 118 Princes Street, EH2 4AA

NatWest, 8 George Street, EH2 2SB

Barclays, 1 St Andrew Square, EH2 2BD

Glasgow, Scotland's
largest city, is located 46 miles west of Edinburgh and is easily
reached via train (see above), bus (running from the main bus
terminal) or via the M8 motorway. Great for shopping and has some
excellent museums and galleries.

Fife is a
predominantly rural county, with some lovely old towns and villages
dotted throughout. This is the coast which can be seen across the
Firth of Forth from many viewpoints around the city. It's easy to
get to via the twin road and rail bridges across the Forth.

Dunfermline,
previously the capital of Scotland, makes an excellent day trip. It is
easily accessed by car via the Forth Road Bridge. There is a half
hourly service by train from Waverley station (also stopping at
Haymarket).

Aberdour— Described as
"The Jewel of Fife", Aberdour is a historic and stunningly
attractive coastal village 40 minutes drive North of Edinburgh.
Aberdour Castle is a must-see, as well as the Blue-Flag awarded
beach the Silver Sands. There are also several pubs, restaurants,
and boutique shops.

St Andrews—
Ancient university town, former ecclesiastical capital of Scotland,
and home of the Royal and Ancient - the ruling body of
Golf.

East Lothian, immediately to the east of the
city, offers rolling green countryside, golden sandy beaches,
dozens of golf courses, and more annual sunshine hours than any
other part of the UK. The area has a number of picturesque villages
and small towns, including North Berwick, with webcams at
the Scottish Seabird Center giving live pictures
of thousands of birds on the Bass Rock; Gullane, a mecca for golfers;
Musselburgh for ice cream and
horse racing; and Dunbar, a pleasant harbour town famous
as the birthplace of conservationist John Muir.

The Museum of Flight[70] in East
Fortune is about 30 minutes drive along the A1 towards Dunbar. It
is home to a number of historic aircraft from across the history of
flight, including British Airways Concorde G-BOAA. Remember to book
in advance to see inside Concorde as these tickets are generally
sold out on the day. Another rather good attraction (and well worth
the look) is the De-Havilland Comet 4C, a modified version of the
Worlds first jetliner.

West Lothian is the area to the west of the
city. Generally less pretty than its eastern counterpart, but does
have a couple of destinations worth the effort.

Linlithgow with
its Palace, and links to Mary, Queen of Scots, is a great little
town for a day trip from Edinburgh. It is a short drive by car on
the M9. There is also a frequent service by train from Waverley
station (also stopping at Haymarket).

Livingston— One of Scotland's New
Towns, it is one of Scotland's most popular shopping spots, only a
short drive from Edinburgh on the M8 or A70. Plus there are also
bus and rail services to the new town.

The Falkirk Wheel [71] Built in 2001 to
reconnect the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal, it is the
world's only rotating boat lift. Free entry to the visitor center /
cafe / gift shop. Boat trips up on the Wheel take about an hour,
and cost £8 adults, £4.25 children, £6.50 concessions. Half hourly
buses from Falkirk town
center, or a good walk from the Falkirk "Camelon" railway station.
You can also cycle along the Union Canal from Edinburgh - the route
is part of the National Cycle Network.

The Glentress Moutain Biking Centre
[72] is the largest mountain biking centre in Scotland, and one
of the best in the UK. You can hire a bike and helmet for around
£20 a day. Routes are provided for cyclists of different skill
levels, and are signposted so you won't get lost. You can get there
on the 62 bus from Edinburgh in just over 1 hour (see Traveline
Scotland [73] for
travel info).

The Pentlands Hills Regional Park [74] is a low-lying
hill range to the South of Edinburgh, popular with walkers and
cyclists. Getting there takes around 30 minutes on the bus, or 45
minutes by bicycle from central Edinburgh. Cyclists are allowed to
take bikes on buses run by MacEwans's Coach Services
[75] which stop at the Flotterstone Inn. Map of official
mountain bike routes
[76]. Local walks - look for ones with "Pentland" in title [77]

National Cycle Network routes around Edinburgh
[78] Edinburgh is well connected to the NCN with a variety of
places accessible within a days cycling - Glasgow, Stirling, Falkirk, Musselburgh, and Dunbar - all of which have train stations for
the return journey. The number 1 route which goes south from
Edinburgh to Melrose in the
borders and then east to Berwick-upon-Tweed (and then back on
the train) can be done in one weekend with a variety of
accommodation available for an overnight stay in the historic
border town of Melrose.

This is a guide article. It has a variety
of good, quality information including hotels, restaurants,
attractions, arrival and departure info. Plunge forward and help us
make it a star!

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EDINBURGH

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It’s where Miss Brodie enjoyed her prime

and beauty rubs shoulders with tenement grime, where Stevenson
roamed the Georgian squares and Scott has that monument with all
those stairs, where Connery delivered the milk each day before a
licence to kill brought better pay, where each night the castle
gets lit up like the Murrayfield crowd at the Calcutta Cup, where
you can take a rest on Arthur’s seat when you tire of the throng on
Prince’s Street, where the east wind blows across the Braids up the
legs of kilties on parades, where the Botanical Gardens are a rival
to Kew and the des. res. for fauna is Corstorphine Zoo, where the
world comes visiting once a year for cultural treats from slapstick
to Lear, where Japanese tourists hunting in packs sample the tartan
and whisky macs, where the Royal Mile leads down to a palace almost
as grand as that viewed by Alice, where the locals, full of civic
pride, scoff at Big Brother up the Clyde. There are few more
magical places to be even for Sassenachs just like me.

From LoveToKnow 1911

EDINBURGH, a city and royal burgh, and county of itself, the capital of Scotland, and county town of
Edinburghshire, or Midlothian, situated
to the south of the Firth of Forth, 396 m. by rail N. of London. The old Royal Observatory on Calton
Hill stands in 55° 57' 23" N. and 12° 43' 05" W. Edinburgh occupies
a group of hills of moderate height and the valleys between. In the
centre is a bold rock, crowned by the castle, between which and the new town lies a ravine that once contained the
Nor' Loch, but is now covered with the gardens of Princes Street.
To the east rises Calton Hill (355 ft.) with several conspicuous
monuments, the city prison and
the Calton cemetery. On
the south-east, beyond the Canongate limits, stands the hill of
Arthur's Seat (822 ft.). Towards the north the site of the city
slopes gently to the Firth of Forth and the port of Leith; while to the south, Liberton
Hill, Blackford Hill, Braid
Hills and Craiglockhart Hills roughly mark the city bounds, as Corstorphine Hill and the
Water of Leith do the western limits. The views of the city and
environs from the castle or any of the hills are very beautiful,
and it is undoubtedly one of the most picturesque capitals in the
world. Its situation, general plan and literary associations
suggested a comparison that gave Edinburgh the name of " the modern
Athens "; but it has a
homelier nickname of "
Auld Reekie," from the cloud of
smoke (reek) which often hangs
over the low-lying quarters.

Chief Buildings

Of the castle, the oldest building is St Margaret's chapel, believed to be the chapel
where Queen Margaret, wife
of Malcolm Canmore,
worshipped, and belonging at latest to the reign of her youngest
son, David
I. (1124-1153). Near it is the parliament .and banqueting hall,
restored (1889-1892) by the generosity of William Nelson (1817-1887) the publisher, which contains
a fine collection of Scottish armour, weapons and regimental
colours, while, emblazoned on the windows, are the heraldic bearings of royal and other
figures distinguished in national history. Other buildings in the
Palace Yard include the apartments occupied by the regent, Mary of Guise,
and her daughter Mary, queen of Scots, and the room
in which James VI. was born. Here also are deposited the Scottish
regalia (" The Honours of
Scotland "), with the sword of
state presented to James IV. by PopeJulius
II., and the jewels restored to Scotland on the death (1807) of
CardinalYork, the last of the Stuarts. The arsenal, a modern building. on
the west side of the rock, is capable of storing 30,000 stand of
arms. In the armoury is a collection of arms of various dates;. and
on the Argyll battery stands
a huge piece of ancient artillery,. called Mons Meg, of which
repeated mention is made in Scottish history. Argyll Tower, in which Archibald, 9th earl
of Argyll, spent his last days (1685), was also restored in 1892 by
Mr William Nelson.

Holyrood Palace was originally an abbey of canons regular of
the rule of St Augustine, founded by David I. in 1128, and
the ruined nave of the abbey
church still shows parts of the original structure. Connected with
this is a part of the royal palace erected by James IV. and James
V., including the apartments occupied by Queen Mary, the scene
of the murder of Rizzio in 1566. The abbey
suffered repeatedly in invasions. It was sacked and burnt by the
English under the earl of Hertford in 1544, and again in 1547. In a map of 1544, preserved among the Cotton MSS. in the British
Museum, the present north-west tower of the palace is shown
standing apart, and only joined to the abbey by a low cloister. Beyond this is an
irregular group of buildings, which were replaced at a later date
by additions more in accordance with a royal residence. But the
whole of this latter structure was destroyed by fire in 1650 while
in occupation by the soldiers of Cromwell; and the more modern
parts were begun during the Protectorate, and completed in the reign
of Charles II. by
Robert Milne, after the designs of Sir William Bruce of Kinross. They
include the picture gallery, 150 ft. in length, with 106 mythical
portraits of Scottish kings, and a triptych (c. 1484) containing
portraits of James III.
and his queen, which is believed to have formed the altar-piece of the collegiate
church of the Holy Trinity, founded by the widowed queen of James II. in 1462, demolished
in 1848, and afterwards rebuilt, stone for stone, in Jeffrey
Street. The picture gallery is associated with the festive scenes
that occurred during the short residence of Prince Charles in 1745; and in it the
election of representative peers for Scotland takes place. Escaping
from France at the revolution
of 1789, the comte d'Artois, afterwards Charles X.
of France, had apartments granted for the use of himself and
the emigrant nobles of his suite, who continued to reside in the palace till
August 1799. When driven from the French throne by the revolution
of 1830, Charles once more found a home in the ancient palace of
the Stuarts. George IV. was received there in
1822, and Queen Victoria
and the prince consort
occupied the palace for brief periods on several occasions, and in
1903 Edward VII.,
during residence at Dalkeith Palace, held his court within its
walls. A fountain, after
the original design of that in the quadrangle of Linlithgow Palace, was
erected in front of the entrance by the prince consort. The royal
vault in the Chapel Royal, which
had fallen into a dilapidated condition, has been put in order;
Clockmill House and grounds have been added to the area of the parade ground, and the abbey
precincts generally and the approaches to the King's Park have been
improved. With the abolition of imprisonment for debt in 1881 the
privileges of sanctuary
came to an end.

Parliament House, begun in 1632 and completed in 1640, in which
the later assemblies of the Scottish estates took place until the
dissolution of the
parliament by the Act of Union of 1707, has since been set apart as
the meeting-place of the supreme courts of law. The great hall,
with its fine open-timbered oak
roof, is adorned with a splendid stained-glasswindow and several statues of notable men,
including one (by Louis Francois Roubiliac) of Duncan Forbes of Culloden,
lord president of the court of session (1685-1747), and now forms the
ante-room for lawyers and their clients. The surrounding buildings,
including the courtrooms, the Advocates' and the Signet libraries, are all modern
additions. The Advocates' library is the finest in Scotland.

VIII. 30 a Founded in 1682, at the instance of Sir George
Mackenzie, king's advocate under Charles II., and then dean of the faculty, it is regarded
as the national library, and is one of the five entitled by the Copyright Act to receive a
copy of every work published in Great Britain.

The General Register
House for Scotland, begun in 1 774 from designs by Robert Adam, stands at
the east end of Princes Street. It contains, in addition to the
ancient national records, adequate accommodation, in fireproof chambers, for
all Scottish title-deeds, entails, contracts and mortgages, and for
general statistics,
including those of births, deaths and marriages.

The Royal Institution, in the Doric style, surmounted by a colossal stone statue of
Queen Victoria by Sir John Steell, formerly furnished official
accommodation for the Board of Trustees for Manufactures and the
Board of Fishery, and also for the school of art, and the libraries
and public meetings of the Royal Society (founded in 1783),
and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (founded in 1780). In
1910 it was renamed and appropriated to the uses of the Royal
Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, which was instituted in
1826, and incorporated by royal charter in 1838, on the model of
the Royal
Academy in London. It is situated on the Mound close to the National Gallery, of which the
prince consort laid the foundation stone in 1850. These
collections, especially rich in Raeburn's works, include also
Alexander Nasmyth's portrait of Robert Burns, Gainsborough's ",The Hon.
Mrs. Graham" (see Painting, Plate VI. fig. 20), Sir Noel Paton's
" Quarrel " and " Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania," several works by William Etty, Robert ScottLauder and Sam Bough, Sir Edwin
Landseer's " Rent Day in the Wilderness," and the
diploma pictures of the academicians, besides many specimens of the
modern Scottish school. The National Portrait Gallery and
Antiquarian Museum are housed in Queen Street, in a building
designed by Sir Rowand Anderson and constructed at the expense of J.
R. Findlay of Aberlour
(1824-1898), the government providing the site.

Churches

In conformity with the motto
of the city, Nisi Dominus frustra, there are numerous
handsome places of public worship. St Giles's church, which was
effectively restored (1879-1883) by the liberality of Dr William
Chambers the publisher, has interesting historical and literary
associations. The regent Moray, the marquess of
Montrose, and Napier of
Merchiston were buried within its walls and are commemorated by
monuments, and among the memorial tablets is one to R. L. Stevenson
by Augustus St Gaudens. The choir (restored in 1873 by public subscription)
is a fine example of 15th-century architecture, and the Gothiccrown surmounting the central tower forms one of
the most characteristic features in every view of the city. Just
outside the church in Parliament Square, the supposed grave of John Knox is indicated by a
stone set in the pavement
bearing his initials, and
in the pavement to the west a heart indicates the site of the old Tolbooth,'
which figures prominently in Scott's Heart of Midlothian.
Other churches having historical associations are the two
Greyfriars churches, which occupy the two halves of one building;
Tron church, the scene of midnight hilarity at the new year; St
Cuthbert's church; St Andrew's church in George
Street, whence set out, on a memorable day in 1843, that long
procession of
ministers and elders to Tanfield Hall which ended in the founding
of the Free Church;
St George's church in Charlotte Square, a good example of the work
of Robert Adam. The United Free
Church claims no buildings of much historic interest, but St
George's Free was the scene of the ministrations of Dr Robert S.
Candlish (1806-1873), Dr Oswald Dykes (b. 1835), Dr Alexander Whyte
(b. 1837), a man of great mark and influence in the city, and his
successor Hugh Black (b. 1868). Preachers like Robert
Candlish, Thomas Guthrie (1803-1873), Marcus Dods (b. 1834),
occupied many pulpits, besides those of the particular
congregations whom each served. The most imposing structure
belonging to the Scottish Episcopal Church is St Mary's cathedral, built on ground
and chiefly from funds left by the Misses Walker of Coates, and
opened for worship in 1879. It is in the Early Pointed style, by Sir Gilbert Scott, is 278 ft.
long, and is surmounted by a spire 275 ft. high. The old-fashioned mansion of East Coates, dating
from the 17th century, still stands in the close, and is occupied
by functionaries of the cathedral. St John's Episcopal church at
the west end of Princes Street was the scene of the ministrations
of Dean Ramsay, and St Paul's Episcopal church of the Rev. Archibald
Alison, father of the historian. The Catholic Apostolic
church at the foot of Broughton Street is architecturally
noticeable, and one of its features is a set of mural paintings
executed byMrsTraquair. The Central Hall atTollcross testifies to
Methodist energy. John Knox's house at the east end of High Street
is kept in excellent repair, and contains several articles of
furniture that belonged to the reformer. The Canongate Tolbooth
adjoins the parish church, in the burial-ground of which is the tombstone raised
by Burns to the memory of Robert Fergusson, and where Dugald Stewart,
Adam Smith and other
men of note were buried. Almost opposite to it stands Moray House,
from the balcony of which
the 8th earl of Argyll watched Montrose led to execution (1650). The city gaol, a castellated structure on the
black rock of Calton Hill, forms one of the most striking groups of
buildings in the town. In the Music Hall in George Street, Carlyle, as lord rector of the university,
delivered his stimulating address on books to the students, and Gladstone addressed the electors in his Midlothian
campaigns. St Bernard's Well, on the Water of Leith, was
embellished and restored (1888) at the cost of Mr William Nelson. A
sum of Lioo,000 was bequeathed by Mr Andrew Usher (1826-1898) for a hall to be called the
Usher Hall and to supplement I The original Tolbooth was completed
in 1501, but a new one took its place in 1563-1564, and was
subsequently altered. At first occupied by the parliament and
courts of justice, it served later as a prison, and was removed in
1817.

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e her e the municipal buildings. The library of the solicitors
to the supreme courts presents to the Cowgate a lofty elevation in
red sandstone. The Sheriff Court Buildings stand
on George IV. Bridge, and facing them is Mr Andrew Carnegie's free
library (1887-1889). At the corner of High Street and George IV.
Bridge stand the County buildings. The Scotsman newspaper
is housed in an ornate structure in North Bridge Street, the
building of which necessitated the demolition of many old alleys
and wynds, such as Fleshmarket Close and Milne Square. Ramsay
Gardens, a students' quarter fostered by Prof. Patrick Geddes (b.
1854), grew out of the " goose-pie " house
where Allan Ramsay lived, and with its red-tiled roof and effective
lines adds warmth to the view of the Old Town from Princes Street. Not the least
interesting structure is the old City Cross (restored at the cost
of W. E. Gladstone), which stands in High Street, adjoining St
Giles's. Several of the quaint
groups of buildings of Auld Reekie have been carefully restored,
such as the White Horse Close in the Canongate;
the mass of alleys on the north side of the Lawnmarket, from
Paterson's Close to James's Court have been connected, and here
Lord Rosebery acquired and restored the 17th-century dwelling which
figures in the legend of My Aunt Margaret's Mirror. Another model restoration of a
historic close is found in Riddle's Close, which contains a
students' settlement. If these and other improvements have led to
the disappearance of such old-world picturesque buildings as Allan
Ramsay's shop " at the sign of the
Mercury, opposite Niddry
Wynd," Cardinal Beaton's palace, the old Cunzie House, or mint, the beautiful timber-fronted " land " that stood at the head
of the West Bow, and even such "
howffs " as Clerihugh's tavern, where Mr Counsellor Pleydell and the rest
played the " high jinks " described in Guy Mannering, it
must be conceded that the changes in the Old Town (many of a
drastic nature) have been carried out with due regard to the
character of their environment.

Monuments

Edinburgh is particularly rich in monuments of every description
and quality. Of these by far the most remarkable is the Scott
monument in East Princes Street Gardens, designed by George Meikle
Kemp (1795-1844); it is in the form of a spiral Gothic cross with a central canopy beneath which is a seated
statue of Scott with his dog " Maida " at his side, by Sir John
Steell, the niches being occupied by characters in Sir Walter's
writings. A column, 136 ft. high, surmounted by a colossal figure
of Viscount Melville, Pitt's first lord of the Admiralty, rises
from the centre of St Andrew Square. At the west end of George
Street, in the centre of Charlotte Square, stands the Albert Memorial, an equestrian
statue of the prince consort, with groups at each of the four
angles of the base. Burns's monument, in the style of a Greek
temple, occupies a prominent position on the Regent Road, on the
southern brow of the lower terrace of Calton Hill. It was originally
intended to form a shrine for
Flaxman's marble statue of the
poet (now in the National Portrait Gallery), but it proved to be
too confined to afford a satisfactory view of the sculptor's work
and was at length converted into a museum of Burnsiana (afterwards
removed to the municipal buildings). On Calton Hill are a number of
finely placed monuments. The stateliest is the national monument to
commemorate the victory of Waterloo, originally intended to be a reproduction of the
Parthenon. The plan was
abandoned for lack of funds, after twelve out of the twenty-four Greek pillars
had been erected, but it is perhaps more effective in its
unfinished state than if it had been completed. The Nelson
monument, an elongated turfeted structure, stands on the highest
cliff of the hill. Close by is the monument to Dugald Stewart, a copy
of the choragic monument of Lysicrates. Sir John Steell's
equestrian statue of the duke of Wellington stands in front of the Register
House, and in Princes Street Gardens are statues of Livingstone,
Christopher North, Allan Ramsay, Adam Black and Sir J. Y. Simpson. In George
Street are Chantrey's figures of Pitt and George IV., and a statue
of Dr Chalmers; the 5th duke of Buccleuch stands beside St Giles's.
Charles II. surveys the spot where Knox was buried; the reformer
himself is in the quadrangle of New College: Sir David
Brewster adorns the quadrangle of the university; Dr William
Chambers is in Chambers Street, and Frederick, duke of York (1763-1827), and the
4th earl of Hopetoun are also commemorated.

Cemeteries

Obviously the churchyards surrounding the older and more
important parish churches - such as Greyfriars', St Cuthbert's and
the Canongate, contain the greatest number of memorials of the
illustrious dead. In Greyfriars' churchyard the Solemn League and Covenant was signed, and among its many
monuments are the Martyrs' monument, recording the merits of the
murdered covenanters, and the tomb of " Bluidy " Mackenzie. To the three named should be added
the Calton burying-ground, with its Roman tomb of David Hume, and the obelisk raised in 1844 to the
memory of Maurice Margarot,
Thomas Muir (1765-1798), Thomas Fyshe Palmer (1747-1802), William Skirving and Joseph
Gerrald (1765-1796), the political martyrs transported towards the
end of the 18th century for advocating parliamentary reform. The
Scottish dead in the American Civil War are commemorated
in a monument bearing a life-sized figure of Abraham Lincoln
and a freed slave. The cemeteries are all modern. In Warriston
cemetery (opened in 1843) in the New Town, were buried Sir
James Young Simpson, Alexander Smith the poet, Horatio
McCulloch, R.S.A., the landscape painter, the Rev. James Millar,
the last Presbyterian chaplain of the castle, and the Rev. James
Peddie, the pastor of Bristo Street church. In Dean cemetery,
partly laid out on the banks of
the Water of Leith, and considered the most beautiful in the city
(opened 1845), were interred Lords Cockburn, Jeffrey and
Rutherford; " Christopher North," Professor Aytoun, Edward Forbes the
naturalist, John
Goodsir the anatomist; Sir William Allan, L Sam Bough, George
Paul Chalmers, the painters; George Combe, the phrenologist; Playfair,
the architect; Alexander Russel, editor of the Scotsman;
Sir Archibald Alison, the historian; Captain John Grant, the last
survivor of the old Peninsular Gordon Highlanders; Captain Charles Gray, of the Royal
Marines, writer of Scottish
songs; Lieutenant John Irving, of the Franklin expedition, whose remains were sent
home many years after his death by Lieut. Frederick Schwatka, U.S.
navy; and Sir Hector Macdonald, "
Fighting Mac " of Omdurman. In the south side are the Grange, Newington or Echobank,
and Morningside cemeteries. In the Grange repose the ashes of
Chalmers, Guthrie and Lee, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Sir Hope
Grant, Hugh
Miller and the 2nd Lord Dunfermline.

Parks and Open Spaces. - Edinburgh is exceptionally
well provided with parks and open spaces. The older are Princes
Street Gardens, covering the old Nor' Loch, Calton Hill, the
Meadows and the Bruntsfield Links. The municipal golf links are on the Braid Hills. On the southern
side Blackford Hill has been set apart for public use. Here stands
the Royal Observatory, in which the great Dunecht telescope was erected in
1896. Harrison Park is a
breathing spot for the congested district of Fountainbridge, and
the park at Saughton Hall, opened in 1905, for the western district
of the city. To the north of the Water of Leith lie Inverleith
Park, the Arboretum and
the Royal Botanical Garden.
This institution has undergone four changes of site since its
foundation in 1670 by Sir Andrew Balfour and Sir Robert
Sibbald, and now occupies an area of 34 acres in Inverleith
Row. It includes a herbarium and palm house, with an extensive range of hot-houses,
a museum of economic botany, a
lecture-room and other requisites for the study of botany. The most
important open spaces, however, surround Arthur's Seat (822 ft.).
This basaltic hill, the name of which is believed to commemorate
the British king Arthur, who
from its height is said to have watched the defeat of the Picts by
his followers, is shaped like a lioncouchant, with head towards the
north. It is separated from the narrow valley, in which lie the
Canongate and Holyrood Palace, by Salisbury Crags, named after Edward III.'s
general William Montacute, 1 st earl of Salisbury (1 3 01 -
1 344). At their base is the Queen's Drive (32 m.
long), named by Queen Victoria. Adjoining Holyrood Palace is the
King's Park, used as a parade ground.

Facing the crags on the south-west are the spots familiar to
readers of The Heart of Midlothian, where stood Jeanie
Deans's cottage, and between the crags and Arthur's Seat lies
Hunter's Bog, used as a shooting range. Near here too
are three small lakes, Duddingston, Dunsappie and St Margaret's,
the last overlooked by the ruins of St Anthony's chapel.

Environs

In several directions many places once to be described among the
environs have practically become suburbs of Edinburgh. Newhaven (population of
parish, 7636), so called from the harbour constructed in the reign
of James IV., had a shipbuilding yard of some repute in former
times. The village has always been a fishing-place of importance,
the " fishwives " in their picturesque garb being, till recently,
conspicuous figures in the streets of the capital. It used to be a
popular resort for fish dinners,
and it plays a prominent part in Charles Reade's novel of
Christie Johnstone. To the west lies Granton
(pop. 1728), where the 5th duke of Buccleuch constructed a
magnificent harbour. Before the building of the Forth Bridge the
customary approach to Fifeshire and the north-east of Scotland was
by means of a steamferry from Granton to Burntisland, which is
still used to some extent. There is regular communication with Iceland, the continental ports
and London. A marine station here was established by Sir John Murray, but has
been discontinued. Still farther west lies the village of Cramond
(pop. of parish, 3815), at the mouth of the river Almond, where Roman remains have often been
found. It was the birthplace of several well-known persons, among
others of John Law
(1671-1729), originator of the Mississippi scheme, Lauriston Castle being
situated in the parish. Cramond Brig was the scene of one of the "
roving " adventures of James V., when the life of the " Gudeman of
Ballengeich " was saved by Jock Howieson of the Braehead.
Corstorphine (pop. 2725), once noted for its cream and also as a spa, is now to all intents and purposes
a western suburb of the capital. The parish church contains the
tombs of the Forresters, of old the leading family of the district,
with full-length sculptured figures, and at the base of
Corstorphine Hill - from one point of which (" Rest and be Thankful
") is to be had one of the best views of Edinburgh - are the seats
of several well-known families. Among these are Craigcrook Castle
(where Lord Jeffrey spent many happy years, and the gardens of
which are said to have given Scott a hint for Tullyveolan in
Waverley), and Ravelston House, the home of the Keiths. To
the south of the metropolis are Colinton (pop. 5499), on the
Water of Leith, with several mansions that once belonged to famous
men, such as Dreghorn Castle and Bonally Tower; and Currie (pop.
2513), which was a Roman station and near which are Curriehill
Castle (held by the rebels against Queen Mary), the ruins of Lennox Tower, and Riccarton, the
seat of the GibsonCraigs, one of the best-known Midlothian
families. At Dalmahoy Castle, near Ratho (pop. 1946), the seat of
the earl of Morton, are preserved the only extant copy of the bible of the Scottish parliament
and the original warrant for
committing Queen Mary to Lochleven Castle in Kinross-shire.
Craigmillar, though situated in the parish of Liberton, is really a
part of Edinburgh. Its picturesque castle, at least the oldest
portion of it, probably dates from the 12th century. Its principal
owners were first the Prestons and latterly the Gilmours. After
playing a varied role in local and national story, now as
banqueting-house and now as prison, it fell gradually into
disrepair. It was advertised as to let in 1761, and early in the
19th century, along with the chapel adjoining, was in ruins, but
has been restored by Colonel Gordon-Gilmour. It was a favourite
residence of Mary Stuart, and its associations with the hapless
queen give it a romantic interest. Duddingston (pop. 2023), once a
quiet village, has become a centre of the distilling and brewing industries. The parish
church, effectively situated on an eminence by the side of the lake, was the
scene of the ministration of the Rev. John Thomson (1778-1840), the landscape
painter, who numbered Sir Walter Scott among his elders.
Duddingston House is a seat of the duke of Abercorn. Liberton (pop.
of parish, 7 2 33), a name that recalls the previous existence of a
leper's hospital, is
prominently situated on the rising ground to the south of
Edinburgh, the parish church being a conspicuous landmark.
Adjoining is the village of Gilmerton (pop. 1482), which used to
supply Edinburgh with yellow sand,
when sanded floors were a feature in the humbler class of houses.
Portobello (pop. 9180), being within 3 m. of the capital, must
always enjoy a large share of public patronage, though it is not in
such favour as a wateringplace as it once was. Its beautiful
stretch of sands is flanked by a promenade extending all the way to Joppa. The beach was at one time used for the purpose of
reviews of the yeomanry.
The town dates from the middle of the 18th century, when a cottage
was built by a sailor and named Portobello in commemoration of Admiral Vernon's victory in
1739. The place does a considerable trade in the making of bricks,
bottles, earthenware, pottery, tiles and paper. Joppa, which
adjoins it, has salt works, but is
chiefly a residential neighbourhood. Inveresk (pop. 2939), finely
situated on the Esk some 6 m. from Edinburgh, is a quaint village
with several old-fashioned mansions and beautiful gardens. Alexander
Carlyle, the famous divine (1 77 2-1805), whose
Memorials of his Times still affords fascinating reading, ministered for
fifty-five years in the parish church, in the graveyard of which
lies David
Macbeth Moir (1798-1851), who under the pen-name of " Delta " wrote Mansie
Wauch, a masterpiece of Scots humour and pathos. Lasswade (pop. of parish,
9708), partly in the Pentlands, famous for its oatmeal, was often
the summer resort of Edinburgh worthies. Here Sir Walter Scott
lived for six years and De Quincey for nineteen, and William Tennant
(1784-1848), author of Anster Fair, was the parish
dominie. Many interesting mansions were and are in the vicinity,
amongst them Melville Castle, the seat of the Dundas Melvilles, and
Auchendinny, where Henry Mackenzie, author of The Man
of Feeling, resided. The two most celebrated resorts, however,
amongst the environs of Edinburgh are Roslin (pop. 1805) and
Hawthornden. Roslin Castle is romantically situated on the
beautifully wooded precipitous banks of the Esk. It dates from the
12th century and is a plain, massive ruin, architecturally
insignificant. Partially destroyed by fire in 1 447 and afterwards
rebuilt, it was sacked in 1650 and again in 1688, and then
gradually fell into decay. The chapel, higher up the bank, a relic of
great beauty, was founded in 1446 by William St Clair, 3rd earl of
Orkney. It is believed to be
the chancel of what was
intended to be a large church. Although it suffered at the hands of
revolutionary fanatics in 1688, the damage was confined mainly to
the external ornament, and
the chapel, owing to restoration in judicious taste, is now in
perfect condition. The Gothic details are wonderful examples of the
carver's skill, the wreathed " Prentice's pillar " being the subject of a well-known
legend. The walk to Hawthornden, about IIm. distant, through the
lovely glen by the river-side, leads to the mansion of the
Drummonds, perched high on a lofty cliff falling sheer to the
stream. The caverns in the sides of the precipice are said to have
afforded Wallace and other heroes (or outlaws) refuge in time of
trouble, but the old house is most memorable as the home of the
poet William
Drummond, who here welcomed Ben Jonson; the tree beneath which the two poets sat still stands.
Near Swanston, on the slopes of the Pentlands, where R. L.
Stevenson when a boy used to make holiday occasionally, is a golf-course which
was laid out by the Lothianburn Club. The Pentland range contains
many points of interest and beauty, but these are mostly accessible
only to the pedestrian, although the hills are crossed by roads, of
which the chief are those by Glencorse burn and the Cauld Stane
Slap. Habbie's Howe, the scene of Allan Ramsay's pastoralThe Gentle
Shepherd, is some 2 m. from Carlops, and Rullion Green is
noted as the field on which the Covenanters were defeated in 1666.
At Penicuik (pop. 5097), where the Clerks were long the ruling
family, S. R. Crockett was minister until he formally devoted
himself to fiction. The town is, industrially, remarkable for its
paper mills and mines of coal and
other minerals.

Communications

The two trunkrailways serving Edinburgh
are the North British and the Caledonian. The North British station
is Waverley, to which the trains of the Great Northern, North
Eastern and the Midland systems run from England. The Caledonian station is Princes
Street, where the through trains from the London &
North-Western system of England arrive. Leith, Granton and Grangemouth serve as
the chief passenger seaports for Edinburgh. Tramways connect the
different parts of the city with Leith, Newhaven, Portobello and
Joppa; and the Suburban railway, starting from Waverley station,
returns by way of Restalrig, Portobello, Duddingston, Morningside
and Haymarket. In summer, steamers ply between Leith and Aberdour and other pleasure
resorts; and there is also a service to Alloa and Stirling. In the season brakes constantly run
to Queensferry (for
the Forth Bridge) and to Roslin, and coaches to Dalkeith, Loanhead
and some Pentland villages.

Population

In 1801 the number of inhabitants was 66,544; in 1851 it was
160,302; in 1881 it was 234,402; and in 1901 it was 316,479. In
1900 the birth-rate was 26.90 per thousand, 7.8% of the births
being illegitimate; the deathrate was 19.40 per thousand, and the
marriage-rate 10 per thousand.

The area of the city has been enlarged by successive extensions
of its municipal boundaries, especially towards the west and south.
An important accession of territory was gained in 1896, when
portions of the parishes of Liberton and Duddingston and the police burgh of Portobello were
incorporated. Under the Edinburgh Corporation Act 1900, a further
addition of nearly 1800 acres was made. This embraced portions of
South Leith parish (landward) and of Duddingston parish, including
the village of Restalrig and the ground lying on both sides of the
main road from Edinburgh to Portobello; and also part of Cramond
parish, in which is contained the village and harbour of Granton.
The total area of the city is 10,597 2 acres. The increase in
wealth may best be measured by the rise in assessed valuation. In 1880 the city
rental was £1,727,740, in 1890 it was £2,106,395, and in 1900-1901
£2,807,122.

Government

By the Redistribution Act of 1885 the city was divided for
parliamentary purposes into East, West, Central and South
Edinburgh, each returning one member; the parliamentary and
municipal boundaries are almost identical. The town council, which
has its headquarters in the Municipal Buildings in the Royal
Exchange, consists of fifty members, a lord provost, seven baffles, a dean of guild, a
treasurer, a convener of trades, seven judges of police, and
thirty-two councillors. The corporation has acquired the gas-works, the cable tramways (leased to a company), the
electric lighting of the
streets, and the water-supply from the Pentlands
(reinforced by additional sources in the Moorfoot Hills and Talla
Water). Among other duties, the corporation has a share in the
management of the university, and maintains the Calton Hill
observatory.

May Meetings

During the establishment of Episcopacy in Scotland, Edinburgh was the
seat of a bishop, and the
ancient collegiate church of St Gilesrose to the dignity of a cathedral. But the annual
meeting of the General Assembly of the Church of
Scotland at Edinburgh is now the public manifestation of the
predominance of Presbyterianism as the national church.
In May each year the sovereign appoints a representative as lord
high commissioner to the General Assembly of the Established
Church, who takes up his abode
usually in the palace of Holyrood, and thence proceeds to the High
Church, and so to the assembly hall on the Castle Hill. The lord
provost and magistrates offer to him the keys of the city, and
levees, receptions and state dinners revive in some degree the
ancient glories of Holyrood. The General Assembly of the United
Free Church is usually held at the same time.

University

The university of Edinburgh, the youngest of the Scottish
universities, was founded in 1583 by a royal charter granted by
James IV., and its rights, immunities and privileges have been
remodelled, ratified and extended at various periods. In 1621 an
act of the Scottish parliament accorded to the university all
rights and privileges enjoyed by other universities in the kingdom,
and these were renewed under fresh guarantees in the treaty of
union between England and Scotland, and in the Act of Security. Important changes
were made in the con stitution by acts passed in 1858 and 1889. It
was one of the first universities to admit women students to its
classes and degrees, and its alumni are brought into close
bonds of sympathy and activity by a students' union. The number of
students averages nearly three thousand a year. As a corporation it
consists of a chancellor, vice-chancellor, lord rector (elected
by the students every three years), principal, professors,
registered graduates and matriculated students. The chancellor is
elected for life by the general council, of which he is head; and
the rights of the city as the original founder have been recognized
by giving to the town council the election of four of the seven
curators, with whom rest the appointment of the principal, the
patronage of seventeen of the chairs, and a share in other
appointments. Along with that of St Andrews, the university sends
one member to parliament. While the college, as such, bears the
name of the College of King James, or King's college, and James VI.
is spoken of as its founder, it really originated in the liberality
of the citizens of Edinburgh. William Little of Craigmillar, and
his brother Clement Little, advocate, along with
James Lawson, the colleague and successor of John Knox, may justly
be regarded as true founders. In 1580 Clement Little gave all his
books, three hundred volumes, for the beginning of a library, and
this was augmented by other valuable benefactions, one of the most
interesting of which was the library of Drummond of Hawthornden.
The library now contains upwards of 220,000 volumes, and more than
7000 MSS. The buildings of the university occupy the site of the
ancient collegiate church of St. Mary in the Field (the "Kirk of
Field"), the scene of the murder of Darnley. The present structure,
the foundationstone of which was laid in 1789, is a classical
building, enclosing an extensive quadrangle. The older parts of it,
including the east front, are from the design of Robert Adam, his
plans being revised and modified by W. H. Playfair (1789-1857), but
it was not till 1883 that the building was completed by the dome, crowned by the bronze figure of Youth bearing
the torch of Knowledge, on the
facade in South Bridge Street.
This edifice affords accommodation for the lecture rooms in the
faculties of arts, law and theology, and for the museums and library. The
opening up of the wide thoroughfare of Chambers Street, on the site
of College Wynd and Brown and Argyll Squares, cleared the precincts
of unsightly obstructions and unsavoury neighbours. The Royal
Scottish Museum, structurally united to the university, contains
collections illustrative of industry, art, science and natural
history; and Minto House college and Heriot-Watt college are practically adjuncts of
the university. The library hall was restored and decorated,
largely through the generosity of Sir William Priestley
(1829-1900), formerly M.P. for the university; while munificent
additions to the academic funds and resources were made by the 15th
earl of Moray (1840-1901), Sir William Fraser
(1816-1898), and others. The university benefits also, like the
other Scottish universities, from Mr Andrew Carnegie's endowment
fund. The medical school stands in Teviot Row, adjoining George
Square and the Meadows. To this spacious and well-equipped group of
buildings the faculty of medicine was removed from the college. The
medical school is in the Italian Renaissance style from the designs of
Sir Rowand Anderson. The magnificent hall used for academic and
public functions was the gift of William M ` Ewan, some time M.P.
for the Central division of Edinburgh. Closely associated with the
medical school, and separated from it by the Middle Meadow Walk, is
the Royal Infirmary, designed by David Bryce, R.S.A. (1803-1876),
removed hither from Infirmary Street. Its wards, in which nearly
ten thousand patients receive treatment annually, are lodged in a
series of turreted pavilions, and cover a large space of ground on
the margin of the Meadows, from which, to make room for it, George
Watson's College - the most important of the Merchant Company
schools - was removed to a site farther west, while the Sick
Children's hospital was moved to the southern side of the
Meadows.

Scientific Institutions

The old Observatory is a quaint structure on Calton Hill,
overlooking the district at the head of Leith Walk. The City
Observatory stands close by, and on Blackford Hill is the newer
building of the Royal Observatory.

The Astronomer-Royal for Scotland also holds the chair of
practical astronomy.

The museum and lecture-rooms of the Royal College of Surgeons
occupy a handsome classical building in Nicolson Street. The
college is an ancient corporate body, with a charter of the year
1505, and exercises the powers of instructing in surgery and of giving degrees. Its graduates
also give lectures on the various branches of medicine and science
requisite for the degree of doctor of medicine, and those extra-academical
courses are recognized, under certain restrictions, by the
University Court, as qualifying for the degree. The museum contains
a valuable collection of anatomical and surgical preparations.

The Royal College of Physicians is another learned body
organized, with special privileges, by a charter of incorporation
granted by Charles II. in 1681. In their hall in Queen Street are a
valuable library and a museum of materia medica. But the college as
such takes no part in the educational work of the university.

Educational Institutions

After the Disruption in 1843, and the formation of the Free
Church, New College was founded in connexion with it for training
students in theology. Since the amalgamation of the United
Presbyterian and the Free Churches, under the designation of
the United Free Church of
Scotland, New College is utilized by both bodies. New College
buildings, designed in the Pointed style of the 16th century, and
erected on the site of the palace of Mary of Guise, occupy a
prominent position at the head of the Mound.

Edinburgh has always possessed exceptional educational
facilities. The Royal high school, the burgh school par
excellence, dates from the 16th century, but the beautiful
Grecian buildings on the southern face of Calton Hill, opened in
1829, are its third habitation. It was not until 1825, when the
Edinburgh Academy was opened, that it encountered serious rivalry.
Fettes College, an imposing structure in a 16th-century semi-Gothic
style, designed by David Bryce and called after its founder Sir
William Fettes (1750-1836), is organized on the model of the great
English public schools. Merchiston Academy, housed in the old
castle of Napier, the inventor of logarithms, is another
institution conducted on English public school lines. For many
generations the charitable foundations for the teaching and
training of youth were a conspicuous feature in the economy of the
city. Foremost among them was the hospital founded by George Heriot - the
" Jingling Geordie " of Scott's Fortunes of Nigel - the goldsmith and banker of James
VI. At his death in 1624 Heriot left his estate in trust to the magistrates and ministers of
Edinburgh for the maintenance and teaching of poor fatherless sons
of freemen. The quadrangular edifice in Lauriston, sometimes
ascribed to Inigo
Jones, is one of the noblest buildings in the city. Even
earlier than Heriot's hospital was the Merchant Maiden hospital, dating from 1605, which gave to
the daughters of merchants similar advantages to those which
Heriot's secured for burgesses' sons. In 1738 George Watson's
hospital for boys was founded; then followed the Trades' Maiden
hospital for burgesses' daughters, John Watson's, Daniel Stewart's, the Orphans', Gillespie's,'
Donaldson's 2 hospitals, and other institutions founded by
successful merchants of the city, in which poor children of various
classes were lodged, boarded and educated. Nearly all these
buildings are characterized by remarkable distinction and beauty of
design. This is especially true of Donaldson's hospital at the
Haymarket, which has accommodation for three hundred children. As
the New Town expanded, the Heriot Trust - whose revenues were
greatly benefited thereby - erected day-schools in different
districts, in which thousands of infants and older children
received a free education, and, in 1 James Gillespie (1726-1797)
was a tobacco and snuff manufacturer, and when he set
up his carriageHenry Erskine
suggested as a motto the homely couplet " Wha wad hae thocht it, That noses wad bocht it? " 2 James
Donaldson (1751-1830) was a printer who bequeathed nearly the
whole of his large fortune for the purposes of a hospital for poor
boys and girls, and the trustees have usually selected half of the
children admitted from the ranks of the deaf and dumb.

cases of extreme poverty, a money grant towards maintenance.
Public opinion as to the " hospital " system of board and
education, however, underwent a revolutionary change after the
Education Act of 1872 introduced school boards, and the Merchant
Company - acting as governors for most of the institutions -
determined to board out the children on the foundation with
families in the town, and convert the buildings into adequately
equipped primary and secondary day-schools. This root-and-branch
policy proved enormously successful, and George Watson's college,
Stewart's college, Queen Street ladies' college, George Square
ladies' college, Gillespie's school, and others, rapidly took a high place among the
educational institutions of the city. Nor did the Heriot Trust
neglect the claims of technical and higher education. The
Heriot-Watt college is subsidized by the Trust, and Heriot's
hospital is occupied as a technical school. Concurrently with this
activity in higher branches, the school board provided a large
number of handsome buildings in healthy surroundings. The Church of
Scotland and the United Free Church have training colleges.

Besides the Royal Infirmary there are a considerable number of
more or less specialized institutions, two of the most important
being situated at Craiglockhart. On the Easter Hill stands the Royal Edinburgh asylum for the insane, which
formerly occupied a site in Morningside, while the City infectious
diseases hospital is situated at Colinton Mains. The Royal blind
asylum at Powburn in its earlier days tenanted humbler quarters in
Nicolson Street. Chalmers's hospital in Lauriston was founded in
1836 by George
Chalmers for the reception of the sick and injured. The home
for incurables is situated in Salisbury Place. The infirmary
convalescents are sent to the convalescent house in Corstorphine.
Other institutions are the Royal hospital for sick children, the
home for crippled children, the Royal maternity hospital, and the
deaf and dumb asylum. Though Trinity hospital no longer exists as a
hospital with resident pensioners, the trustees disburse annually
pensions to certain poor burgesses and their wives and children;
and the trust controlling the benevolent branch of the Gillespie
hospital endowment is similarly administered.

Industries

Although Edinburgh is a residential rather than a manufacturing
or commercial centre, the industries which it has are important and
flourishing. From 1507, when Walter Chapman, the Scottish Caxton, set up the first
press, to the present day, printing has enjoyed a career of almost
continuous vitality, and the great houses of R. & R. Clark, T.
& A. Constable, the
Ballantyne Press, Morrison & Gibb, Turnbull & Spears, and
others, admirably maintain the traditional reputation of the
Edinburgh press. Publishing, on the other hand, has drifted
away, only a few leading houses - such as those of Blackwood,
Chambers and Nelson - still making the Scottish capital their
headquarters. Mapmakers, typefounders, bookbinders and
lithographers all contribute their share to the prosperity of the
city. Brewing is an industry of exceptional vigour, Edinburgh ale being proverbially good. The
brewers and distillers, such as M ` Ewan, Usher and Ure, have been
amongst the most generous benefactors of the city. The arts and crafts
associated with furniture work, paper-making and coach-building may also be specified, whilst
tanneries, glassworks, india-rubber and vulcanite factories,
brass-founding, machinery works,
the making of biscuits, tea-bread and confectionery are all prominent. In
consequence of the large influx of tourists every year the North
British and Caledonian railway companies give employment to an
enormous staff. Building and the allied trades are chronically
brisk, owing to the constant development of the city. Fine white
freestone abounds in the immediate vicinity (as at Craigleith, from
the vast quarry of which, now
passing into disuse, the stone for much of the New Town was
obtained) and furnishes excellent building material; while the hard
trap rock, with which the
stratified sandstones of the Coal formation have been extensively
broken up and overlaid, supplies good materials for paving and
road-making. On this account quarrying is another industry which is seldom
dormant. Owing to the great changes effected during the latter part
of the 19th century, some of the old markets were demolished and
the system of centralizing trade was not wholly revived. The
Waverley Market for vegetables and fruit presents a busy scene in the early morning,
and is used for monster
meetings and promenade and popular concerts. Slaughter-houses, cattle markets and grain markets have been erected at
Gorgie, thus obviating the driving of clocks and herds through the
streets, which was constantly objected to. An infantry regiment is always stationed in the
castle, and there are in addition the barracks at Piershill (or " Jock's Lodge "),
half-way between Edinburgh and Portobello.

Social Life. - Edinburgh society still retains a
certain oldfashioned Scottish exclusiveness. It has been said that
the city is " east-windy " and the folk " west-endy." But this
criticism needs judicious qualification. The local patriotism and
good taste of the citizens have regulated recreation and have also
preserved in pristine vigour many peculiarly Scottish customs and
pastimes. Classical concerts and concerts of the better sort,
chiefly held in the M ` Ewan and Music Halls, are well attended, and
lectures are patronized to a degree unknown in most towns. In
theatrical matters in the old days of stock companies the verdict of an Edinburgh audience was held to make or
mar an actor or a play. This is no longer the case, but the Lyceumtheatre in Grindlay Street and the Theatre
Royal at the head of Leith Walk give good performances. Variety
entertainments are also in vogue, and in Nicolson Street and
elsewhere there are good music halls. Outdoor recreations have
always been pursued with zest. The public golf-course on Braid
Hills and the private courses of the Lothianburn club at Swanston
and the Barnton club at Barnton are usually full on Saturdays and
holidays. The numerous bowling-greens are regularly frequented and are
among the best in Scotland - the first Australian team of bowlers
that visited the mother country (in 1901) pronouncing the green in
Lutton Place the finest on which they had played. Cricket is played by the
university students, at the schools, and by private clubs, of which
the Grange is the oldest and best. In winter the game of curling is played on
Duddingston Loch, and Dunsappie, St Margaret's Loch, Lochend and
other sheets of water are covered with skaters. Rugbyfootball is in high favour, Edinburgh being
commonly the scene of the international matches when the venue falls to Scotland. Hockey claims many votaries,
there usually being on New Year's day a match at shinty, or camanachd, between
opposing teams of Highlanders resident in the city. The central
public baths in Infirmary
Street, with branch establishments in other parts of the town,
including Portobello, are largely resorted to, and the proximity of
the Firth of Forth induces the keener swimmers to visit Granton
every morning. Facilities for boating are limited (excepting on the
Forth), but rowing clubs find
opportunity for practice and races on the Union Canal, where,
however, sailing is scarcely possible. Edinburgh maintains few newspapers, but the
Scotsman, which may be said to reign alone, has enjoyed a
career of almost uninterrupted prosperity, largely in consequence
of a succession of able editors, like Charles Maclaren, Alexander Russel,
Robert Wallace and Charles Cooper. The Edinburgh
Evening News and the Evening Dispatch are popular sheets. In the past
the Edinburgh Evening Courant, the chief organ of the Tory party, of
which James Hannay
was editor for a few years, had a high reputation. The Witness, edited by Hugh
Miller, the Daily Review, edited first by J. B. Manson and
afterwards by Henry Kingsley, and the Scottish
Leader, were conducted more or less as Liberal organs with a
distinct bias in favour of the
then Free Church, but none of these was long-lived. Volunteering
has always attracted the younger men, and the highest awards at Wimbledon and Bisley have been won by the
Queen's Edinburgh History. - In remote times the seaboard
from the Tyne to the Forth was
occupied by the Ottadeni, a Welsh tribe of the Brigantes, the territory immediately to the
west of it being peopled by the Gadeni. It is probable that the
Ottadeni built a fort or camp on the rock on which Edinburgh Castle
now stands, which was thus the nucleus around which, in course of time, grew a
considerable village. Under the protection of the hill-fort, a
native settlement was established on the ridge running down to the
valley at the foot of Salisbury Crags, and another hamlet, according to William
Maitland (1693-1757), the earliest historian of Edinburgh, was
founded in the area at the northwestern base of the rock, a
district that afterwards became the parish of St Cuthbert, the
oldest in the city. The Romans
occupied the country for more than three hundred years, as is
evidenced by various remains; `but James Grant (1822-1887), in Old and New
Edinburgh, doubts whether they ever built on the castle rock.
When they withdrew, the British tribes reasserted their sway, and
some authorities go so far as to suggest that Arthur was one of
their kings. The southern Picts ultimately subdued the Britons, and
the castle became their chief stronghold until they were overthrown
in 617 (or 629) by the Saxons
under Edwin, king of Northumbria, from whom the name of
Edinburgh is derived. Symeon of Durham (854) calls it Edwinesburch, and includes
the church of St Cuthbert within the bishopric of Lindisfarne. Its
Gaelic name was Dunedin.
This name is probably a translation of the Saxon name. James
Grant's view that it may have been the earlier name of the castle,
from dun (" the fort "), and edin (" on the slope
"), conflicts with the more generally received opinion that the
Britons knew the fortress as Castelh Mynedh Agnedh (" the
hill of the plain "), a designation once wrongly interpreted as the
" castle of the maidens " (castrum puellarum), in allusion
to the supposed fact that the Pictish princesses were lodged within
it during their education. In the 16th century the latinized form
Edina was invented and has been used chiefly by poets, once notably
by Burns, whose " Address " begins " Edina! Scotia's darling seat." Long after
Edwin's conquest the lowland
continued to be debatable territory held by uncertain tenure, but at length it was to a
large extent settled anew by Anglo-Saxon and Norman colonists under Malcolm Canmore and his
sons.

In the reign of Malcolm Canmore the castle included the king's
palace. There his pious queen, Margaret, the grand-niece of Edward
the Confessor, died in 1093. It continued to be a royal
residence during the reigns of her three sons, and hence the first
rapid growth of the upper town may be referred to the 12th century.
The parish church of St Giles is believed to have been erected in
the reign of Alexander I., about 1110, and
the huge Norman keep of the castle, built by his younger brother,
David I., continued to be known as David's Tower till its
destruction in the siege of
1572. Soon after his accession to the Scottish throne David I.
founded the abbey of Holyrood (1128), which from an early date
received the court as its guests. But notwithstanding the
attractions of the abbey and the neighbouring chase, the royal
palace continued for centuries to be within the fortress,. and
there both the Celtic and Stuart kings frequently resided.
Edinburgh was long an exposed frontier town within a territory only
ceded to Malcolm II. about 1020; and even under the earlier Stuart
kings it was still regarded as a border stronghold. Hence, though
the village of Canongate grew up beside the abbey of David I., and
Edinburgh was a place of sufficient importance to be reckoned one
of the four principal burghs as a judicatory for all commercial
matters, nevertheless, even so late as 1450, when it became for the
first time a walled town, it did not extend beyond the upper part
of the ridge which slopes eastwards from the castle. So long,
however, as its walls formed the boundary, and space therefore was
limited, the citizens had to provide house-room by building
dwellings of many storeys. These tall tenements on both sides of
what is now High Street and Canongate are still a prominent
characteristic of the Old Town. The streets were mostly very
narrow, the main street from the castle to Holyrood Palace and the
Cowgate alone permitting the passage of wheeled carriages. In the
narrow " wynds " the nobility and gentry paid their visits in sedan chairs, and proceeded in full
dress to the assemblies and
balls, which were conducted with aristocratic exclusiveness in an
alley on the south side of High
Street, called the Assembly Close, and in the assembly rooms in the
West Bow. Beyond the walls lay the burghs of Calton, Easter and
Wester Portsburgh, the villages of St Cuthbert's,
Moutrie'sHill,Broughton,Canonmills, SilvermillsandDeanhaugh - all
successively swallowed up in the extension of the modern city. The
seaport of Leith, though a distinct burgh, governed by its own
magistrates, and electing its own representative to parliament, has
also on its southern side become practically united to its great neighbour.

The other three royal burghs associated with Edinburgh were
Stirling, Roxburgh and Berwick; and their enactments form the earliest
existing collected body of Scots law. The determination of
Edinburgh as the national capital, and as the most frequent scene
of parliamentary assemblies, dates from the death of James I. in 1436. Of the
thirteen parliaments summoned by that sovereign, only one, the
last, was held at Edinburgh, but his assassination in the
Blackfriars' monastery at Perth
led to the abrupt transfer of the court and capital from the Tay to the Forth. The coronation of James II.
was celebrated in Holyrood Abbey instead of at Scone, and the widowed queen took up her
residence, with the young king, in the castle. Of fourteen
parliaments summoned during this reign, only one was held at Perth,
five met at Stirling and the rest at Edinburgh; and,
notwithstanding the favour shown for Stirling as a royal residence
in the following reign, every one of the parliaments of James III.
was held at Edinburgh. James II. conferred on the city various
privileges relating to the holding of fairs and markets, and the
levying of customs; and by a royal charter of 1452 he gave it
pre-eminence over the other burghs. Further immunities and
privileges were granted by James III.; and by a precept of 1482, known as the Golden Charter,
he bestowed on the provost and magistrates the hereditary office of
sheriff, with power to hold courts, to levy fines, and to impose duties on all
merchandise landed at the port of Leith. Those privileges were
renewed and extended by various sovereigns, and especially by a
general charter granted by James VI. in 1603.

James III. was a great builder, and, in the prosperous era which
followed his son's accession to the throne, the town reached the
open valley to the south, with the Cowgate as its chief
thoroughfare. But the death of James IV. in 1513, along with other
disastrous results of the battle of Flodden, brought this era of prosperity to an
abrupt close. The citizens hastened to construct a second line of
wall, enclosing the Cowgate and the heights beyond, since occupied
by Greyfriars churches and Heriot's hospital, but still excluding
the Canongate, as pertaining to the abbey of Holyrood. In the 16th
century the movements connected with John Knox and Mary, queen of
Scots, made Edinburgh a castle of much activity. With the
departure, however, of the sixth James to fill the English throne
in 1603, the town lost for a long period its influence and prestige. Matters were not
bettered by the Act of Union signed in a cellar in High Street in
1707, amidst the execrations of the people, and it was not till the
hopes of the Jacobites
were blasted at Culloden
(1746) that the townsfolk began to accept the inevitable. This
epoch, when grass grew even in High Street,
long lingered in the popular memory as the " dark age." By the
accession of George III. (1760), Edinburgh
showed signs of revived enterprise. In 1763 the first North Bridge,
connecting the Old Town with the sloping ground on which afterwards
stood the Register House and the theatre in Shakespeare Square, was opened; a
little later the Nor' Loch was partially drained, and the bridging
of the Cowgate in 1785 encouraged expansion southwards. Towards the
end of the 18th century the New Town began to take shape on the
grand, if formal, lines which had been planned by James Craig (d.
1795), the architect, nephew of the poet Thomson, and the erection of Regent Bridge in
Waterloo Place (formally opened in 1819 on the occasion of the
visit of Prince Leopold, afterwards king of the Belgians) gave
access to Calton Hill. The creation of Princes Street, one of the
most beautiful thoroughfares in the world, led to further
improvement. The earth and debris from the excavation of the sites
for the houses in this and adjoining streets had been " dumped " in
the centre of the drained Nor' Loch. This unsightly mass of rubbish
lay for a while as an eyesore, until the happy thought arose of
converting it into a broad way joining the new .oNd at Hanover Street with the Old
Town at the Lawnmarket. Upon this street, which divides Princes
Street and its gardens into east and west, and which received the
title of the Mound, were erected the National Gallery and the Royal
Institution. Speaking generally, the New Town wzs resorted to by
professional men - lawyers, doctors and artists, - and in its
principal streets will be found the head offices of the leading
banks and insurance
offices, all lodged in buildings of remarkable architectural
pretensions. The Commercial, the Union and the Clydesdale banks are
in George Street, the National. Bank of Scotland, the Royal Bank of
Scotland, and the British Linen
Company's Bank are in St Andrew Square, the Bank of Scotland is at
the head of the Mound. The extensive building operations engaged in
by the town council in the early part of the ,9th century resulted
in the insolvency of the city in 1833. The property of the
corporation was valued at £271,658 against a debt of £425,195,
which was compounded for by the issue of 3% annuity bonds - the loss to the creditors
amounting to 25% of their claims.

Meanwhile the progress of letters, science and learning
manifested the recovery of the city. The names of Knox (d. 1572),
Buchanan (1582), Alexander Montgomery (1605), Drummond of Hawthornden
(1649), Allan Ramsay (1757), Smollett (1771), Fergusson (1774), and
Burns (1796), carried on the literary associations of the Scottish
capital nearly to the close of the 18th century, when various
causes combined to give them new significance and value. The
university was served by a body of teachers and investigators who
won for it a prominent position among European schools. Then
succeeded the era of Scott's Marmion and The Lady of
the Lake, followed by the Waverley novels and the foundation
of Blackwood's Magazine and the Edinburgh Review.
Modern conditions have changed the character of Edinburgh society.
In Scott's early days a journey to London was beset with
difficulties and even dangers; but railways have now brought it
within a few hours' distance, and Scottish artists and literary men
are tempted to seek a wider field. Nevertheless, the influence of
the past survives in many ways. Edinburgh is not markedly a
manufacturing city, but preserves its character as the Scottish
capital.

Authorities

- James Grant, Old and New Edinburgh (London, 1880 et
seq.); W. Maitland, History of Edinburgh (1753); Hugo
Arnot, History of Edinburgh (1789); B. Chambers,
Traditions of Edinburgh (1824); D. Wilson, Memorials
of Edinburgh in the Olden Time (1846-1848); O. Smeaton,
Edinburgh and its Story (1904). The Municipal
Buildings of Edinburgh, by Robert Miller, Lord Dean of Guild,
printed by order of the town council (Edinburgh, 1895) Royal
Edinburgh, by Mrs Oliphant, illustrations by Sir George
Reid, R.S.A. (London, 1890).